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MEN AID THINGS 



AS 






I SAW THEM IN EUROPE. 



BY KIR WAN. 



NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

329 & S3] PEARL STREET, 
FEANKLIN SQUARE. 

1853. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-three, by 

Harper &, Brothers, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
of New York. 



TN EXCHANGE* 

Drew Theol. Sem, 

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HIS OWN PEOPLE, 



ENDEARED TO HIM BY A MINISTRY OF TWENTY YEARS, 
THIS MEMORIAL OF HIS FOREIGN TRAVEL 



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BY THEIR PASTOR. 



PREFACE. 



What, another book of sketches of men and things 
in Europe ! Yes, verily, another hook ! But how came 
you to write it ? I will tell you. First, because many 
of my friends seemed determined that I should write it. 
Secondly, because I had collected matter enough for a 
volume during my rambles. Thirdly, I have as good 
a right to maintain the truth of the proverb, that " of 
making books there is no end," as any body else. 
Fourthly, because I saw things with my own eyes, 
and desired to tell about them in my own way. Fifth- 
ly, because I believe I have friends and readers enough 
to exhaust at least one edition, who are desirous to 
know who and what I saw, and what I think about 
them ; and I have a wish to gratify them. And, 
lastly, because I thought I could make some revelations 
as to religion, morals, and men, that may be of some 
use to my generation. If these reasons are not satis- 
factory, the reader has my hearty consent to lay down 
this volume unread. The loss may be as much his as 
mine. 

I describe things as I saw them ; and if my pictures 
are not true, it is because I am no painter. I speak of 
men and things according to my own impressions ; who 
would desire me to speak according to theirs ? Let 
all such write their own books. Though I may be 
judged as having spoken with undue severity as to 



VI PREFACE. 

some things in the following pages, I hope I have spo- 
ken as a Christian ; and as an American citizen, who 
feels that my adopted, beloved country has nothing to 
learn but evil from the religion, the habits, the morals, 
the politics, and especially the priests of the Continent 
of Europe. There are some things which require a 
whip of scorpions, and they should have it. 

I say but little about Ireland, as I indulge the hope 
of giving a little volume to the public on Ireland and 
the Irish, for the benefit of its swarming emigrants to 
this land. But whether I can arrange my materials, 
and when, are very uncertain — perhaps soon, perhaps 
never. 

I often allude in these pages to my traveling com- 
panion. He was Dr. Greorge R. Chetwood, my towns- 
man and friend ; eminent for his professional skill and 
sterling virtues ; and who will testify that I have taken 
no traveler's license with the men, scenes, things, and 
circumstances which I describe. 

I send this volume forth after its predecessor with 
the prayer to Grod that all the good seed it contains 
may be widely scattered and permanently fruitful. 

Kirwan. 
New York, August, 1853. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Voyage opens. — Our Passengers. — A Voyage a Voyage. — A Pic- 
ture. — Death on Board. — Burial at Sea. — An Ocean Grave unde- 
sirable Page 9 

CHAPTER II. 
First Sight of Land — Voyage Ended. — Liverpool. — Dr. Raffles. — 
Souls from Purgatory. — Sabbath in Liverpool. — First Sermon in 
Britain.— Dr. Hugh M'Neil.— Chat with a Lady 15 

CHAPTER III. 
Ride from Liverpool to London. — Chat in the Cars. — London. — Sam- 
uel Gurney. — Reform in Ireland. — Rev. Mr. Jowett. — John Hen- 
derson. — Dr. Achilli. — Caution as to Priests 21 

CHAPTER IV. 
Exeter Hall. — Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society. — 
Lord Ashley. — Marquis of Cholmondeley. — Earl of Harrowby. — 
Sir Robert H. Ingles. — Dr. Duff. — Salt among the Aristocracy. 27 

CHAPTER V. 
St. Paul's. — The Tower. — The Thames. — Westminster Abbey. — 
Stone of Destiny. — Regent's Square Church. — Dr. Hamilton. — St. 
James's. — Westminster. — Bishop Wilberforce 33 

CHAPTER VI. 
Mr. Lawrence. — Parliament House. — House of Lords. — Lord Chan- 
cellor. — Duke of Argyle. — Wee Willie Skinner. — Lord Grey. — 
Bishop Wilberforce. — Tout ensemble. — Law Lords. — Sir Culling 
Eardley. — Badinage 38 

CHAPTER VII. 
London to Dover. — Dover. — A Voyage to Calais. — Official Imposi- 
tion. — Landing in France. — A true Picture. — Ride from Calais to 
Paris. — The Country. — Wind-mills. — People. — A Dissertation on 
Vanes 43 



11 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Paris. — Garden of the Tuileries : its Beauty. — Night Walk. — Palais 
Royal : its Gardens. — Arbre de Cracovie. — Jardin des Plantes. — 
Pere la Chaise: its Epitaphs Page 48 

CHAPTER IX. 
Notre Dame. — The Power of the Keys. — A Shaving Shop in a Cathe- 
dral. — Hotel Dieu. — A Nun in a Circle. — Vincennes. — A Mistake. 
— Blame divided. — The Donjon. — Salle de la Question. — Justice 
will come 53 

CHAPTER X. 

Versailles. — The Palace. — Picture Gallery. — Chapel. — Theatre. — 
Banqueting Room. — Room of Louis XIV. — Room of Death. — Room 
where was signed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz. — The Bal- 
cony. — The Gardens. — Whence the Revenues. — Causes of the 
Revolution. — Bourbon Dynasty. — Moral Lessons of Versailles. 58 

CHAPTER XI. 
Bastile. — Lettres de Cachet. — Man of Iron Mask. — Column of July. — 
Emeute of 1848. — Place de la Concord. — Obelisk of Luxor. — 
Guillotine. — January 21st and October 16th, 1793. — National As- 
sembly Hall. — Confusion. — Republicanism dishonored 64 

CHAPTER XII. 
Sabbath in Paris. — Madeleine. — Toupet. — The Interior. — Le Suisse. 
— Appearance and Duties. — A Funeral. — A young Couple at Mass. 
— Sights Seen. — High Mass. — Bad Influence of Popery on Paris. 70 

CHAPTER XIII. 
A pleasant Meeting in the Madeleine. — Wesleyan Chapel. — The Serv- 
ice. — " Clothes." — Minister for Paris. — Prayer-meeting. — Sabbath 
Evening Walk. — Sights seen. — Reasons for French Character. — ■ 
The Riddle solved. — A Look at St. Germain. — A Prayer 75 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Exit from Paris. — A Diligence. — Beaune. — Chalons. — Abelard and 
Heloise. — Face of the Country. — French Villages. — The Peasant- 
ry. — The Saone. — Ladies' Dress. — Old Habits retained. — Ameri- 
can Peculiarity. — A Digression 82 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Saone. — Lyons : its Appearance — its History. — Peter de Vaud. 
— Revolutionary Scenes. — Precy. — Couthon. — Collot d'Herbois. — 



CONTENTS. Ill 

Horrid Murders by Jacobins. — Festoons of Human Limbs. — Anec- 
dote of Dr. Nesbit. — Fouche. — Death an eternal Sleep. — The Mob, 
the most fearful of all Governments Page 88 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Lyons. — Down the Rhine : its Scenery. — Nuns: their Appearance.— 
An Inference. — A Contrast. — A startling Incident. — Avignon. — 
Split in the Popedom : its Causes. — The Popes of Avignon : their 
Palace. — The butcher Jourdan. — The Cathedral. — The Tarpaean 
Rock.— The Inquisition. — The Museum. — Old Mortality. — A Con- 
versation with Mine Host. — Petrarch and Laura 94 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Avignon to Marseilles. — Mixed People. — The City. — The Sea. — Po- 
lite Captain. — Marseillaise Hymn: its History. — Dietrick's Fate. — 
De Lisle.— Pensioned by Louis Philippe. — The Hymn itself.. 100 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Sail to Leghorn. — A Day in its Bay. — Robbing by Passports. — Leg- 
horn from the Sea. — Corsica. — Napoleon. — A great Man a great 
Need. — Civita Vecchia : its Fortress. — Placard on Notre Dame. — 
Civita Vecchia from the Sea. — Ostia.- — Bay of Naples. — Landing 
in Italy 107 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Naples. — Carthusian Monks. — The entire View. — Vesuvius. — Her- 
culaneum. — Pompeii. — Cemetery. — The Morals of the People. — 
Naples thoroughly Popish. — Its Beggars. — Its Priests. — Its Igno- 
rance. — Its Superstitions. — Its Wickedness. — Its awful Despotism. 
— Ferdinand the " Model King." — The blessings of Popery .. 113 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Effect of a Feast-day. — San Carlos. — Mixture. — Capua. — Gaeta : 
its Sights. — The Three Taverns. — First Sight of Rome. — Italy, from 
Naples to Rome. — The Face of the Country. — The People. — Wom- 
an degraded. — Emblems of Superstition every where. — Mass in a 
Village. — Light at Gaeta. — Contrast. — Glorious Associations. — 
Door of Hope 121 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Dreams realized. — Rome from the Tower of the Capitoline. — The 

Tiber. — The Seven Hills. — The Magnificent vanishes. — The Ruins. 

— Bathos. — The Corso : its Appearance. — Afternoon Walk. — Rome 

in June. — A Cause for Thankfulness 127 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Object stated. — Saint Peter's. — From Top to Bottom. — Chat in the 
Basement. — Its Grandeur and Amplitude. — Statue of St. Peter. — 
Its Worship disgusting. — Mass there. — A disappointed Confessor. 
— The Scene of the Rod. — The Sublime and Ridiculous. — The 
Confessional, or Tomb of St. Peter. — Poor Ives's Emblems of Of- 
fice.— The Wafer taken.— A Farce Page 133 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Sistine. — Fresco of the Judgment. — Entrance of Cardinals. — En- 
trance of the Pope. — Salutation of the Pope. — His Appearance. — 
Anecdote of Dr. Miller. — Questions. — Cardinals. — Antonelli. — How 
to modify our Opinions and Ideas. — How absurd appear the Claims 
of Popery in the Sistine 139 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Prodigies of Roman History. — Rome yet a City of Prodigies. — Juggle 
of St. Januarius. — Holy House of Loretto. — Bambino. — Scala 
Sancta. — Maria Maggiore. — Statue of Mary at St. Agostine. — Holy 
Chain in St. Peter's, in Vinculo. — Well in St. Maria, in Via Lata. — ■ 
Prayer in the Church of St. Gregory. — Popery a prodigious False- 
hood 145 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Rome to be studied. — Its numerous Churches. — Their Riches of Art 
and Endowment. — Numerous Priests and Nuns. — Poverty of the 
People. — Abounding Beggars. — Way to shake them off. — Absence 
of Youth. — The People in Fear. — Despotism, through the Confes- 
sional. — Its Morals. — No Religion there. — The Voice of Rome to 
the Nations. — Its History not yet ended 152 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Leaving Rome. — A Procession of the Host. — The Aurelian Way. — 
Civita Vecchia. — Genoa from the Sea. — The City. — Columbus. — 
Political History. — Duomo. — Head of John the Baptist. — Sacro Ca- 
tino. — Santa Maria. — An Evening Ramble. — Scenes in the Streets. 
— Female Dress. — Tastes differ 159 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Departure from Genoa. — A Procession. — The Goddess of the City. — ■ 
Primitive Work. — Ascent of the Apennines. — Descent. — Degraded 
Woman. — Novi. — Great Valley, and fertile. — Alessandria. — Ma- 
rengo : its Battle. — Dessaix. — Austria. — Haynau an Incarnation of 
Austria. — Enter Turin. — An Incident 165 



CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Turin. — Beautiful for Situation. — No Antiquities. — Growing rapidly. 
— Charles Albert deceived. — His Death. — Room in the Palace. — 
Spirit of the present King. — Opposed by the Priests. — Legislature 
of Turin. — Senate and House. — Our Charge at Turin. — Santo Su- 
dario. — Worship with the Waldenses : their Chapel. — A Royal Peo- 
ple : their Doctrines and Order. — Turin a strong Point from which 
to act on Italy Page 171 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Departure from Turin. — Ascent of the Alps. — Changes in Vegetation. 
— A Stream from the Clouds. — Going down the Alps. — Our Fel- 
low-travelers : their Testimony as to Rome. — Chambery. — Les 
Charmettes. — Priests abound. — Holy Hill. — Praying in a Hurry. — 
To Geneva. — First View. — Obvious Difference. — Friends in a far 
Country 178 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Geneva : its Attractions. — Miniature of Mont Blanc. — Missionary 
Anniversary. — The Oratoire. — A Drive up the Lake. — Ferney. — 
Voltaire. — Magnificent View. — A Soiree. — Dr. Malan. — D'Au- 
bigne. — Gaussen. — La Harpe. — St. George. — Talk through an In- 
terpreter. — Polite Interchange. — Love-feasts 185 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
For Chamouny. — Enter Sardinia. — Obvious Change. — Fete at Bonne- 
ville. — The Ravine. — Fall d'Arpenaz. — Bridge at St. Martin's : 
its View. — Selling Echoes. — Ascent of Montanvert. — Mer de 
Glace. — Cracks in the Ice. — View from the Cottage. — Snow-ball- 
ing. — Salanche. — Return to Geneva .. . 191 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Geneva : its Influence. — Calvin : his System. — Knox. — Sunday in 
Geneva. — The Market-place. — St. Peter's. — Gaussen in the Ora- 
toire. — Cathedral Services. — Dr. Malan's Chapel. — An Evening 
with his Family. — Sabbath Desecration. — Importance of rightly 
sanctifying the Sabbath. — To whom we owe its true Keeping. 197 

CHAPTER XXXIII. . 
Up Lake Lehman. — Lausanne. — Farrel. — Priestly Profligacy. — Cap- 
tain Packenham. — His Definition. — Neufchatel. — Needed Ref- 
ormation. — Farrel's Visit. — His Grave. — To Basle : its Appearance 
— its History — its Reformation. — CEcolampadius. — Erasmus . 204 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
Departure from Basle. — Valley of the Rhine. — Variety of Travelers. 
— Characteristic Reply. — An Observer. — A Question answered. — 
Strasburg : its wondrous Clock. — Advice to the Priests. — The Ca- 
thedral. — An American Prelate. — Jews burned. — Why no Relics. 
— Poor Scotland. — Searched. — To Baden-Baden Page 211 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Baden-Baden. — Conversation House. — The Gambling-room. — The 
Manner of the Game, and Gamblers. — Monopoly in Gambling ! — 
Hot Springs. — Their Manner of Use. — The new Castle. — Breakfast- 
room. — Underground Apartments. — Awful History 217 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
To Franklort from Baden-Baden. — Hotel Russie. — The City. — Ca- 
thedral. — Jews' Quarters. — Rothschilds. — Their History, and its 
Lessons. — To Cassel. — Down the Rhine. — Ruins, and their His- 
tory. — The Rhine and Hudson compared. — Cologne. — The Dom. — • 
Mary and Bambino again. — The Three Kings. — The Bargain de- 
clined. — An Inference. — St. Ursula. — Bridge of Boats 223 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
From Cologne to Brussels. — Aix-la-Chapelle : its History and holy 
Relics. — Brussels. — The Pare. — Sabbath in Brussels. — St. Gudule. 
— Preaching in Flemish. — A sudden Stop. — Anecdote of Dr. Nes- 
bit. — High Mass. — Lifting the Pay. — Tour of Observation. — Scenes 
in the Pare and Streets. — The Manikin : his curious History. — 
The miraculous Wafers 230 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

To Waterloo.— The Village.— The Field.— Just the Place for the 

Battle. — The dreadfulSpot. — Feelings excited there. — Conjectures. 

— Justice to Bonaparte. — What has England gained 1 — Through 

Flanders to Ostend.— The Hulk.— Rapid Flight 237 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Fleetwood. — Bathing Establishment. — State-room Companion. — 
Landing in Ireland. — Introduction to the Assembly. — Dr. Cook. — 
Dr. Edgar.— Dr. -Stewart.— Dr. Dobbin.— Dr. Carlisle.— Dr. Dill.— 
Dr. Goudy. — An excited Scene. — Great Speech of Dr. Cook. — Two 
Bodies compared. — The Irish Way. — A more excellent Way. 244 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER XL. 
Visit to Connaught. — Sligo. — Emigrants. — Often remove for the 
Worse. — Camline. — Famine Scenes. — A young Hero. — The Dead 
Ass and Family. — Industrial Schools. — Several visited. — Priestly 
Outrages. — Visit at Home. — Great Changes. — Dublin. — Mr. King. 
— Dr. Urwick. — An Incident. — A brighter Day coming ..Page 251 

CHAPTER XLI. 
Down the LifTey. — Up the Clyde. — Glasgow. — John Henderson. — The 
Cathedral. — Necropolis . — M' Gavin . — Communion Service. — To- 
kens and Tables. — Pew Communion. — Dr. Gordon. — The Irish 
Mission. — Gaelic Chapel. — Dr. Candlish. — Model School. — Exam- 
ination. — A Dinner-party. — Edinburgh described 258 

CHAPTER XLII. 

Park. — Rev. J. A. James. — Sail to Oban. — Oban. — Royalty in Exile. 

— Sail round Mull. — StafFa : its Cave. — Iona : its History. — Ruins. 

— Culdees. — Royal Graves. — The ruling Passion. — Stone Crosses. 

—Talk on the Wheel-box 266 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
To Ballahulish. — Glencoe : its Wildness. — Ossian's Birth-place. — 
Massacre. — Scotch Bittock. — A Moor. — Barren Possessions. — Duke 
of Breadalbane. — Loch Lomond. — Sketches from Nature. — Invers- 
naid. — A Cabin. — Loch Katrine. — Trosachs. — Our Coachman. — 
Sabbath in Callander. — Identity of the Gaelic and Irish Languages. 
— Comparison. — To Liverpool 273 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
To Wales. — Menai Straits. — Tubular Bridge. — Length. — View from 
beneath : from the Top. — Last View. — Friends at Liverpool. — Sail- 
ing. — Voyage. — Passengers. — Last Evening. — Our Farewell . 282 



MEN AND THINGS 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Voyage opens. — Our Passengers. — A Voyage a Voyage.— A Pic- 
ture. — Death on Board. — Burial at Sea. — An Ocean Grave unde- 
sirable. 

Departure. At sea. 

The morning of the 3d of April, 1851, opened "brill- 
iantly. A bright blue sky had succeeded to the drip- 
ping clouds of the previous day. The fine old paeket 
Montezuma, Captain DeCourcey, weighed anchor, and 
gave her canvas to a favoring northwester. Our sail 
down the bay of New York, with many friends on board, 
was as pleasant as could be expected ; and when we bid 
them farewell as they were ordered away, we felt, for 
the moment, as if some ties were broken that might not 
again be united. Soon Sandy Hook was passed — soon 
the Neversink hills died away in the distance, until 
they seemed as walls propping up the western sky; 
and when the hour for tea arrived, we could only see 
the heavens above, and a world of waters around us. 
We were at sea. 

"When a man in a crowded hotel is told that he must 
lodge in the same room with half a dozen of men, the 
desire instinctively arises to know something of them; 
A 2 



10 MEN AND THINGS 

Our companions. A voyage. 

and so, with an imprisonment in the cahin of a ship 
for a month hefore you, there is a strong desire to 
know who are your companions. "We met together at 
the table — we studied each others' physiognomy — and 
drew our own conclusions. There was the demure, 
pleasant, intelligent, hut dyspeptic physician ; the elo- 
quent, learned, but nervous and home-sick divine ; the 
plethoric, gouty, and outspoken "Western hanker ; the 
thin, tall, sensitive, singular, versatile, imaginative man 
of letters and fashion, who soon obtained the soubriquet 
of "Professor;" and a short, stout, imperturbable Is- 
raelite, with an Abrahamic visage, who soon answered 
to the name of "Monsieur Gibraltar," and who, from 
the extent of his travels as a peddler of jewelry, might 
be taken for the wandering Jew himself. These, with 
a few others, equally good men but less characteristic, 
made up our cabin company across the Atlantic. 

A voyage is a voyage in all seas and latitudes. All 
meet with the same incidents. They are sick, and 
then well. They are now in calm, now in storm. Now 
they ship a sea, and now they see a ship. And when 
the passengers have used up all their small talk — and 
when the medium of pleasant intercourse is all ex- 
hausted — and when the weather is cold, and no fire to 
warm you — and when you are too stupid to write, too 
cold to read, and too sulky to talk; and when, in addi- 
tion, you are beset by calms and head winds, I know 
of nothing more intolerable than a sea voyage. How 
often did we say that if G-od would forgive us this time, 
and return us safe home, we would not be caught com- 
mitting the sin of going to sea again. But as men soon 
forget, amid the comforts of wealth, the labor and suf- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 11 

A passenger. Case of sickness. 

fering of its acquisition, so we, amid the new scenes 
that opened upon us as we traversed the Old World, soon 
forgot the tedium and suffering of the voyage, and he 
who complained most is now the most eager to try it 
again. 

One incident, of the deepest interest, occurred dur- 
ing our voyage. There sat on the forward deck, as we 
went down to the New York bay, a young man with a 
wan cheek, and pale lips, and sunken eye, which show- 
ed that fell consumption was preying upon his vitals. 
He was a young Irishman returning to his native land 
in search of health. A female sat by his side — his sis- 
ter ; and when the friends of the passengers were ordered 
away, they kissed and parted, with the strongest emo- 
tions. A widowed mother was expecting him home ; 
and this sister, with throbbing heart, was expecting his 
return, in improved health. Both were disappointed. 

He was a passenger in the second cabin ; and as the 
winds and waves soon placed us all on the sick-list, I 
lost sight of him for many days, and even his first ap- 
pearance had passed away from my memory. When 
our voyage was about half made, a female informed 
me that a young man in her cabin was very sick, and 
greatly needed religious instruction. Being informed 
that a visit from me would be agreeable, I hastened to 
his berth. My interview with him was deeply affect- 
ing. He was a child of Protestant parents. On com- 
ing to this country, he had given up all regard for reli- 
gious things, and lived only for the world and pleasure. 
A cold had grown into a consumption, which was now 
near its closing act ; and as tenderly as faithfulness 
would permit, I suggested that, if our voyage should 



12 MEN AND THINGS 

A visit to the sick. A scene at midnight. 

be protracted, as there was reason to fear, he might not 
live to its close. The thought seemed new and over- 
whelming, and he turned away and wept. I asked 
him as to his preparation for eternity. I saw at once, 
from his answer, the need of a protracted visit ; and 
taking my seat on a greasy trunk by his side, I sought 
to instruct him into the way of the Lord. I sought in 
a variety of ways to impress him with a sense of his 
own sinfulness. I sought to place Christ before him 
as the only way of escape for sinners — as the only way 
to heaven ; and then, surrounded by his fellow-passen- 
gers in the same cabin, I committed him to Grod in pray- 
er, and especially implored that the ocean might not be 
made his grave. The effect upon him was not such as 
I desired ; upon others it was deeply solemn. 

On the day following he greatly revived, and played 
cards. The succeeding Sabbath was to be Easter Sun- 
day; and, after the manner of those who regard such 
times and seasons, he commenced his preparations to 
keep it. "With him and others, it was to be a jolly day. 
I sent kind inquiries, and asked for another interview ; 
but it was declined for the present. On Saturday I 
learned that he was quite well, and hoped to be on deck 
on Sunday. There was a change in the weather to- 
ward the close of the day. The wind increased the 
tossing of the ship, and the atmosphere became quite 
damp. About midnight I was called from my berth 
to do what I could for the dying man. I crowded my 
way, half dressed, to his berth, where he lay panting 
away his life. The glaze of death was already in his 
eye. The sweat of death was on all his members. 
His every sense was closed. He was beyond all aid 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 13 



Woman's sympathy. 



from man. The scene was deeply affecting. There, 
on the bosom of the wide Atlantic, at midnight, the 
winds high, and the billows raging, lay a man, sur- 
rounded only by strangers, in the last moments of his 
existence. Nor were these strangers neglectful of him. 
Women were there, who with maternal and sisterly 
solicitude ministered to his wants and wept over his 
sufferings. Feeling that he was beyond my reach, I 
addressed myself to those around me. The profane 
swearer, the card-player, the infidel, the Papist were 
there. But death has power to silence all objections, 
and to open all ears to serious instruction. I pointed 
them to the end of all flesh, and to the need of prepara- 
tion for it; and then implored grace from the God of 
grace for the dying and the living. I retired to my 
berth, not to sleep, but to ponder the scene I had just 
witnessed, the most solemn of my life. 

At the dawn of the morning it was announced in my 
state-room that he was no more. Arrangements were 
made for his burial after breakfast. At the hour ap- 
pointed the corpse was brought on deck, sewed up in 
sail cloth, with a weight attached to its feet. It was 
laid upon a plank, one end of which extended over the 
side of the ship, and the other rested on the long boat. 
The flag of our country, with its stars and stripes, cov- 
ered the capstan, on which lay a Bible. The passen- 
gers and crew were all assembled. There were vet- 
eran tars and veteran sinners; but all were affected. 
There were Protestants and Papists ; but all heard with 
equal interest. I spoke from the text, "And the sea 
gave up the dead which were in it." And as the great 
truths pertaining to the resurrection were unfolded, and 



14 MEN AND THINGS 

Burial at sea. A grave there not desirable. 

as the picture was drawn of the wide sea, whose waves 
seemed to he singing a death dirge around us, giving 
up all its dead, a solemn stillness pervaded the mixed 
congregation. The order was now given to bury the 
corpse ; when two sailors gently raised the end of the 
plank which rested on the long hoat, and it slid into 
its ocean grave. One plunge, and all was over. 

While it makes but little difference where the body 
is laid, if the spirit is only prepared for its home in the 
skies, yet there is something greatly undesirable in a 
burial at sea. Death at sea is usually not expected 
there. Friends are usually absent. A grave there is 
away from the sepulchres of our fathers. No mother's 
tears can bedew it — no stone can mark our resting- 
place— no hand of affection can plant the cypress, the 
yew, or the willow at our head ; no green grass in the 
spring, an emblem of the resurrection, will ever cover 
our narrow house. Our bones may rest as securely 
among its pearls and corals as on land, but the wide, 
wild waste above has no attractions. And as the noise 
of that one plunge sounded through the ship, the silent 
prayer ascended from my heart to Heaven, " Lord, if 
consistent with thy holy will, let none of my descend- 
ants to the remotest generation find their grave in the 
ocean." 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 15 

Sight of land. Liverpool docks. 



CHAPTER II, 

First Sight of Land. — Voyage Ended. — Liverpool. — Dr. Raffles. — 
Souls from Purgatory. — Sabbath in Liverpool. — First Sermon in 
Britain. — Dr. Hugh M'Neil. — Chat with a Lady. 

"We were all weary of the sea, and were as anxious 
for a sight of land as they who watch for the morning. 

" Captain," said one of our passengers at dinner, who 
went by the name of "Colonel of Mooney's brigade," 
"when shall we see land?" 

"About four this afternoon," was the reply. We 
mustered on deck, and at four the southern coast of 
Ireland lay dimly in view, and before the day closed 
rose fully upon us. With what sailors call a " soldier's 
wind," we beat along the Channel as we could. With 
the rock-bound shores of Erin in full view, we passed 
" old head of Kinsale," and afterward the " Tuscar 
light," and " Holyhead," and the " Skerries," when our 
gallant ship turned her head toward Liverpool. Soon 
a pilot was on board; and a "tug" took us in tow; 
and our sails were furled ; and at about ten o'clock on 
the night of the first of May we turned into one of the 
Royal Docks for which that city is famed. These docks 
are easily described. Deep and vast excavations are 
made on the banks of the Mersey, which are surround- 
ed with solid masonry. These connect with the river 
by gates, like those which form the locks on our ca- 
nals. When the tide is full, which rises very high there, 



16 MEN AND THINGS 

Liverpool. Dr. Raffles 

these gates are opened, and vessels of any burden pass 
in and out at pleasure. "When the tide commences 
falling, these gates are closed, and ships of any tonnage 
ride within them in perfect safety. Such docks re- 
quire only a high tide and mercantile enterprise to be 
made any where. 

Liverpool is purely a commercial city, displaying lit- 
tle of either taste or beauty. There is much wealth, 
and solid worth, and active philanthropy there ; but its 
public buildings possess no architectural beauty; its 
most fashionable residences look plain and dingy; and, 
with the exception of Prince's Park, which lies outside 
the city, we observed not a place, or a spot to be com- 
pared with any of the parks, or many of the streets 
which adorn New York or Philadelphia. Save for a 
man of business, I consider it a most uninviting place 
of residence. 

The name of Dr. Raffles, for many years a distin- 
guished minister of that city, is quite familiar to our 
American ears. Through a mutual friend, rising to a 
distinguished rank among the merchants of that city, 
I had a most pleasant introduction to him. He invited 
us to breakfast. "We went at half past eight, and left 
at ten o'clock. The visit was remarkably pleasant. 
He is a man of medium height, of full habit, with a 
full and fresh English face ; his external man strongly 
recalling to memory the late Dr. Codman, of Dorches- 
ter. He is full of information — free and frank in con- 
versation — abounding in anecdote ; and these, connect- 
ed and enlivened with a vein of .humor and wit, make 
him a most agreeable companion. Although probably 
turned of sixty years, he is yet in the full moon of life. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 17 

Ah anecdote. Priestly fraud. A soul from Purgatory. 

and the active, effioient, beloved pastor of one of the 
largest congregations of that commercial emporium. 
With dramatic humor, which exhausted all our power 
of laughter, he narrated some incidents, illustrating 
the absurdities of Popery, and the gross frauds prac- 
ticed by the priests upon their people. Of these the 
following is a specimen. 

An Englishman in Ireland was introduced to a Popish 
chapel there, when souls were to be delivered from Pur- 
gatory. The place was brilliantly lighted. The priest 
sat at a table on which the relatives of the departed, 
whose souls were to be released, laid money as they 
passed. Having collected his wages, the priest com- 
menced his operations, and soon announced that the 
souls were liberated, and would speedily make their ap- 
pearance. Immediately a part of the floor opened, and 
there issued from it small living creatures of red color, 
to the joyful amazement of all present. One of these 
creatures jumped near to the Englishman, who seized 
it, and, putting it in his pocket, rushed out. Breath- 
less, he soon entered the parlor of his friend, exclaim- 
ing, as he flung the living creature upon the table, 
u There is a soul just delivered from Purgatory." It 
was found to be a frog dressed in red flannel ! He was 
told, as he valued his life, not to reveal the deception, 
at least until he had crossed the Channel. 

While it is difficult to give credence to a story like 
this, those acquainted with the many uses made of Pur- 
gatory to filch money from the pockets of the ignorant 
and superstitious will not deem it incredible. But it 
requires the Doctor's manner to give it the effect which 
it produced upon us. He suited admirably the action 



18 MEN AND THINGS 

First Sabbath. Happy beginning. Dr. M'Neil. 

to the word, a species of eloquence which can not he 
printed. 

My first sermon in Europe, and the last, was preach- 
ed in the pulpit of this distinguished minister. I met 
him, previous to the service, in the vestry, surrounded 
by his deacons. The sexton was there to put on the 
gown and bands, which are universally worn by all 
classes of ministers in Europe. The Bible and hymn 
book are taken to the pulpit before the preacher enters 
it. The minister then passes into the church preceded 
by the sexton, who opens the pulpit door for him and 
shuts him in. Then the services commence, and are 
conducted in form and fashion as in our best regula- 
ted Presbyterian churches. On this occasion the Doc- 
tor conducted the introductory services with a propri- 
ety, solemnity, and unction which made them deeply 
impressive, mingling with his supplications a devout 
thanksgiving for my happily-ended voyage, and for my 
merciful deliverance from the perils of the deep. The 
services ended with the administration of the Lord's 
Supper, in which I was permitted to unite. I deem- 
ed the whole service a merciful beginning and a hap- 
py omen of my subsequent Sabbaths and rambles in 
Europe. 

On the evening of the Sabbath, in company with two 
friends, I went out to hear Dr. Hugh M'Neil, at Prince's 
Park. He is noted as an eloquent preacher — as an 
evangelical minister — as a controversialist — a millena- 
rian — and a most bitter Tory politician. It is said that 
on election eras he preaches politics, as on other occa- 
sions he preaches Christ. I was sorry to hear this. 
His church is large, and cruciform ; and in the modern 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 19 

Evening at Prince's Park. The sermon. 

style of Church architecture. A police officer stood at 
each of its doors to regulate carriages and the goers in. 
"We were "ordered by one of these officers from one door 
to another, and were kept standing in the aisle until 
service commenced, and might have stood there to its 
close hut for the recognition of my friend by a pew own- 
er. The introductory services were conducted by an 
assistant or curate ; and, when ended, the Doctor en- 
tered the pulpit. He is a tall, slender man, straight 
as an arrow, with grayish hair, and a face of Scotch- 
Irish cast ; for all the world from his neck up like Pro- 
fessor Mulligan of New York. Judging from his face, 
any body would say that he was predestinated to be a 
Presbyterian, and of the deepest blue. He was born 
in Ireland. He took his text from a small Bible which 
he held in his hand, and which he never laid down du- 
ring the exercise. His sermon was extempore, calm, 
expository, truly scriptural, and exceedingly impressive. 
It contained some passages of great strength, in which 
he scornfully scouted any definition of the Church 
which would exclude from it any who truly believe on 
Christ, and in which he gave to Popery " forty save 
one." All my feelings were in sympathy with the man 
and his subject ; and I did not wonder that he had 
been once a competitor for the highest popularity with 
Irving in London. He was beaten by the Scot. 

I could not help saying, at the close of the service, 
to the lady by whose side I sat, " I hope you feel thank- 
ful to Grod for a minister so truthful and able." " I 
hope we do, sir," she replied, taking me cordially by 
the hand. " And who will I tell him was so gratified 
in hearing him this evening ?" she asked. " "Will you 



20 MEN AND THINGS 

Talk with a lady. Oxfordism denounced. 

return him the thanks of a Presbyterian clergyman 
from America for his excellent sermon, and who spends, 
to-day, his first Sabbath in England?" was my reply. 
She again took me by the hand, and with a radiant 
face replied, " I will go to the vestry and do it instantly." 
And as I returned from the Church, I could not help 
wishing that some of our narrow, and selfish, and ex- 
clusive ministers of the High- Church cut, in our own 
free country, could have heard Dr. M'Neil with me on 
that occasion. The Low-Church ministers of England 
are far more outspoken than in this country. Not 
merely Oxfordism, but the exclusive dogmas of High- 
Churchism, which give over other Christians to uncove- 
nanted mercies, they denounce in words that burn. 
They are not dependent, as here, upon the bishops, for 
their places and stipends. There is no pecuniary mo- 
tive to silence. Never will I forget the lashing which 
the noble stammering Bishop Daly gave them — of 
which more anon. . 

Thus was spent my first Sabbath in England. 






AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 21 

Leaving Liverpool. Comparisons. 



CHAPTER III. 

Ride from Liverpool to London. — Chat in the Cars. — London. — Sam- 
uel Gurney. — Reform in Ireland. — Rev. Mr. Jowett. — John Hen- 
derson. — Dr. Achilli. — Caution as to Priests. 

The Station-house at Liverpool is quite an affair, 
and is managed with, a quietness and promptness which 
surprises those who only know the bustle, noise, and 
rudeness of railway depots and officials in America. 
The railway cars are divided into three apartments, 
each containing six persons. "With the assistance of an 
English lady, well-bred and intelligent, and somewhat 
beyond the medium dimensions, there were enough of 
us from America to fill one of the departments. We 
were off at the appointed moment — we were soon lost 
in the darkness of the tunnel through which you leave 
the city — and after you emerge again into the light, 
the villas, the cultivation, the green swards, the beau- 
tiful hedge-rows of Old England opened upon our view. 
Soon we commenced our comparisons of things in our 
own country with those which every where attracted 
our attention, and the truth of the old adage, " compar- 
isons are odious," was soon apparent in the conduct of 
our English friend. With noble heroism, she ad- 
vanced to the defense of " her own, her native land." 
We admired her cleverness and shrewdness, while 
we could not help a smile occasionally at her ignorance 
of our country. We had many a pass, as pleasant as 



22 MEN AND THINGS 

A chat. A surrender. London. 

they were mirthful, which made us forget that we 
were flying toward London at the rate of nearly fifty 
miles an hour. At length, when pushed a little hard- 
er than politeness toward a lady would warrant from 
Americans, she sought to silence us all hy the magnifi- 
cent sentence, " but all that man, wealth, cultivation, 
and taste can do, they have done for England." 

" True, madam," was the reply ; " but all that (rod 
can do he has done for our country. Man has made 
England, but G-od has made America." 

" I give up, I give up," she replied, with a hearty 
laugh. Soon we reached London, and separated, feel- 
ing that some, at least, of the spice of life consists in 
variety of opinion, and not esteeming each other the 
less because of it. The blunt honesty of the English, 
even when it approaches rudeness, as it often does, in 
the advocacy of what they esteem right, is much more 
to my taste than the gum-elastic pliancy of the French, 
who sacrifice every thing to politeness. 

We are now in London, the world's Babel, and its 
greatest centre of influence. It is so well known, and 
is so much like some of the older parts of some of our 
older cities, that I shall not undertake to describe it. 
After taking rooms at "Woods', High Holborn, and ar- 
ranging our money affairs for the Continent, we went 
out to do duty and to see sights. My first call was 
upon Samuel Grurney, the brother of the well known 
John I. Grurney, and of Mrs. Fry, to whom I had a 
note of introduction from the late Dr. Grriscom, of sci- 
entific and philanthropic memory. He is a plain Qua- 
ker, wearing the full dress of his people, of strong phys- 
ical development, and of a pleasing benignant aspect. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 23 

Samuel Gurney. Mr. Jowett. His warm reply. 

He is at the head of a large banking house, and his 
time and fortune are freely devoted to all efforts to do 
good. He well sustains the reputation of a family 
which has an American as well as a European reputa- 
tion for well doing. He offered me the hospitalities of 
his house, and to introduce me to some of the benevo- 
lent institutions of the city, which my other arrange- 
ments compelled me to decline. He stated, among 
other efforts to do good, one in which he and some of 
his friends were engaged in reference to Ireland, which 
consisted in buying large tracts of land, sold under a 
recent act of Parliament, and then reselling them in 
small farms, in fee simple, to the farmers of the coun- 
try. This plan, if made universal, would soon work 
the redemption and elevation of that unhappy island. 

Thence I went to the rooms of the British and For- 
eign Bible Society, which was to hold its anniversary 
on the following day, and delivered my credentials as 
a delegate from its sister society in America, and was 
most kindly and cordially received by its secretaries. 
I there met the venerable Mr. Jowett, brother of the 
famed missionary in the East. He is a man of middle 
size, gray, and perfectly blind. He was led about by 
a young girl. After a brief conversation, in which he 
showed a heart intensely alive to the cause of Christ, 
I rose to take my departure, saying, " "We shall soon 
be where we can both speak to and see one another." 
He instantly replied, with a warm pressure of the hand, 
" We shall see Christ, as he is, which is far better." I 
was deeply affected by the sight of the apostolical man, 
laid aside, in Providence, from his labors, led about by 
the hand of a maid, with sightless eye-balls seeking 



24 MEN AND THINGS 

J. Henderson. Dr. Achilli. His person. 

light and finding none. How joyful must be the an- 
ticipations of Heaven to such a saint, just putting off 
his harness ! 

At a meeting for prayer, held morning and evening 
at our hotel, I was introduced to John Henderson, Esq., 
of Park, one of the princely merchants of GHasgow, who 
came up to London to preside at the meeting of the 
Tract Society. He is a well-known friend of the re- 
ligious press, was the chief agent in getting up and 
getting out the prize essays on the Sabbath, one of 
which is entitled " The Pearl of Days," and also a most 
valuable volume, which has not been reprinted in this 
country, entitled " The Christian Sabbath," and which 
consists of a series of sermons by some of the ablest 
clergymen of North and South Britain. From this 
gentleman and Christian, from whom I received many 
acts of kindness both in London and Scotland, I re- 
ceived an invitation to breakfast at his rooms, in com- 
pany with the far-famed Dr. Achilli. Greatly desir- 
ous of an interview with this reformed priest, I accept- 
ed the invitation. 

"We met at eight at the rooms of Mr. Henderson, and 
separated at ten. Dr. Achilli, an Italian by birth, a 
Papist and priest by education, and subsequently a 
popular preacher and professor, is now, as the world 
knows, a Protestant. His imprisonment in the Inqui- 
sition, his escape. thence, the charges preferred against 
him by Father Newman and Cardinal "Wiseman, and 
the developments made in the recent trial of Newman 
for slander, have given him great notoriety. He is a 
short man, firmly built, with jet black hair, and a black 
and restless eye. His age may be an advance on for- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 25 

His manners. A translator. My opinion. 

ty years. His manners are pleasant, and in conversa- 
tion he is free — decidedly talkative. Although his En- 
glish was very broken, and my Italian in a far worse 
condition, we needed no interpreter. Beyond all men 
that I ever heard, he was dead upon Popery and the 
priests. His competency as a witness none can ques- 
tion. And, until I saw Naples and Rome for myself, 
I supposed his fierce persecution by his former friends 
gave a tinge of bitterness to his testimony. Now I can 
believe any thing as to the shameless immoralities and 
gross corruption of the Italian priests. He said he was 
engaged in a translation of the New Testament into 
Italian for the Baptist Bible Society of New York. We 
had quite a discussion as to the meaning of the word 
" baptize," in which he showed but little acquaintance 
with the history of the controversy or with the Grreek, 
and in which he admitted the validity of baptism by 
water, in any quantity, while he betrayed a preference 
to the mode by immersion. 

I am free to confess that I was not so favorably im- 
pressed as I expected to have been. It is hard thor- 
oughly to purge a man from the virus of Popery, who 
has practiced for years together the wicked jugglery 
of its priesthood, (rod can do it ; but, as a rule, we 
should wait for good evidence that it is done. The 
barrel, emptied of a bitter liquid, long retains its scent 
and its taste. I have read the Newman trial with 
some care ; and while it pours confusion upon Rome 
and her priests, I confess I should not wonder if there 
were some grounds for the charges against Achilli. 
What reason have we to suppose that, while a priest in 
Italy, he did not live as do Italian priests ? But since 

B 



26 MEN AND THINGS 



Converted priests. Care requisite. 



his hopeful conversion, every effort and witness failed 
to prove moral delinquency. May he endure to the 
end and be saved. 

As light and truth are extending, Papal priests are 
surrendering their wicked and deceptive trade, and 
the number of such must increase from year to year. 
But Protestant churches should know that conversion 
from Popery is not conversion to Christ. And we 
should wait for more than ordinary evidence as to the 
conversion of a man who spent years in converting a 
wafer into God, in hearing confessions and forgiving 
sins for fifty cents a head, in massing souls out of Pur- 
gatory, and in deceiving ignorant people by other priest- 
ly fabrications, before we admit him to the privileges 
and immunities of the Christian Church. It takes time 
thoroughly to imbue a mind with the spiritualism of 
Christianity which has long been accustomed to re- 
gard it as a matter of ceremony. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 27 



British and Foreign Bible Society. Exeter Hall. No pretension. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Exeter Hall. — Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society. — 
Lord Ashley. — Marquis of Cholmondeley. — Earl of Harrowby. — 
Sir Robert H. Ingles. — Dr. Duff. — Salt among the Aristocracy. 

The meeting of the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety is the great anniversary of London. The great 
rally of Protestantism is on its platform. There, all 
who receive the Bible as the all-sufficient Rule of 
Faith — forgetting all minor differences — meet, and re- 
joice together in the privileges and blessings of our 
common Christianity. Accompanied by a few friends, 
we went early to the Committee-room at Exeter Hall, 
where we were introduced to the officers of the society, 
the speakers, and to the noblemen, gentlemen, and 
clergymen, who were present in considerable number. 
At the appointed hour we entered, by a side door, the 
platform of the hall itself, headed by Lord Ashley, the 
president, and were received with applause by the 
crowd of spectators. This famous hall is a large 
oblong room, without galleries, with an elevated plat- 
form at one end, and the seats rising toward the other. 
It reminds an American, not so much of the Tabernacle 
at New York, as of the Musical Fund Hall of Phila- 
delphia. Being the representative of our American 
Bible Society, I was assigned a prominent seat, next 
iiut one to the President ; and, although surrounded by 
the nobles of the land and the dignitaries of the Church, 



28 MEN AND THINGS 

Lord Ashley. His appearance. Cholmondeley 

tliey were as plain and as unpretending men in their 
appearance as we ever meet in good society. In point 
of pretension, a New York clerk or Puseyite priest 
would beat any of them. 

After the reading of a portion of Scripture, Lord 
Ashley, who then presided for the first time as presi- 
dent, rose, and uttered a hrief but noble speech. It 
was full of sense, piety, and noble Protestantism. And 
when he uttered the sentence, " the evangelization of 
the nations and the peace of the world depend upon 
the full, free, and universal circulation of the Word of 
Grod," a plaudit rose from the vast assembly, loud and 
long, which it was good to hear. This nobleman, now 
the Earl of Shaftsbury, is making his mark upon his 
age. He is at the head of the Ragged School system, 
if not its originator. He is devoting his fortune, the 
influence of his position, and his personal industry, to 
the instruction and elevation of the lowest classes of 
society. He is yet in mid-life, tall, spare, of light com- 
plexion, easy, kind, and modest in manner, and bear- 
ing a most striking resemblance to the lamented Dr. 
Kearney Rodgers, of New York. " May he live," in 
the language of the Celestials, " a thousand years." 

There sat down by my side a small man shortly after 
the meeting opened, who was greeted with some " ruf- 
fling" as he entered by the side door. During the read- 
ing of the report, he was making marks on the floor 
with a small ratan. " The first resolution will be of- 
fered by the Marquis of Cholmondeley," said the Presi- 
dent, when, to my no little amazement, up jumped my 
left-hand neighbor, offered the resolution, and made 
quite a speech. I had no idea I was so near a marquis, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 29 

Harrowby. Sir R. H. Ingles. His speech and person. 

and while I saw in his address but little thought or 
force, the audience must have seen it full of both, as 
they clapped him most profusely. But I soon saw that 
the clapping always rose or fell with the title of the 
speaker. "We had a similar speech from the Earl of 
Harrowby, which for its fulsome eulogy of the new 
president was intolerable, and whose redeeming quality 
was a vein of earnest piety. 

The name of Sir Robert H. Ingles, then member of 
Parliament for Oxford, was announced. He is a man 
of mark in the House, and his connection with Ro- 
manizing Oxford excited some interest. He has ren- 
dered himself quite famous recently by his awful re- 
view of the Bishop of Exeter, in which he leaves nei- 
ther root nor branch of that vain, turbulent, selfish, 
but very clever prelate, who once honestly wrote a 
powerful pamphlet against Catholic emancipation, and 
then answered it for a mitre ; and who exercises his 
apostolical functions and patronage so discreetly as to 
pension almost all his poor relations with fat offices. 
The speech of the noble baronet was truly excellent ; 
and a feeling of deep solemnity pervaded the entire 
auditory when he said with emotion and self-applica- 
tion, " No man ought to stand up here to advocate the 
diffusion of the Bible, unless he makes it his first duty 
to regulate his own life and heart by its precepts. 
Whether we have placed the Bible or not in the hands 
of the negro, the Esquimaux, or the Chinese, matters 
little to any of us personally, unless we have the Bible 
in our own hearts." Sir Robert is a large, portly man, 
with a full, rosy face, fluent utterance, decidedly and 
subjectively pious, and was, on the whole the most per- 



30 MEN AND THINGS 

Bishop of Cashel. His person and speech. 

feet personification of an Englishman on the platform. 
Unless he relishes his roast beef, his plum pudding, 
and his mug of ale, he should have his outer man in- 
dieted for bearing false testimony against him. 

The Bishop of Cashel was announced from the chair, 
and my right-hand neighbor was on his feet in a mo- 
ment. He seemed eager for the opportunity. He is 
a strongly built, frank, stammering Irishman, with 
clearly defined principles and strong emotions. And 
how fearfully he lashed High-Churchism and Oxford- 
ism ! Much as I dislike both of them, I felt like ask- 
ing my brother bishop to have a little mercy. " Noth- 
ing," he said, " promotes Roman Catholicism like de- 
parting in any thing from the Scriptures. If the sim- 
ple Scriptures had been adhered to in certain portions 
of our Church, we should never have heard, first, of the 
semi-popery, and then of the whole popery of those who 
have left a stain upon the Church which they have 
deserted. Long before people knew they had a tinge 
of Popery, they were too High- Church to be members 
of the Bible Society. They have deserted the Church 
of England, but they have not deserted the Bible So- 
ciety, for they never belonged to it." "Would that those 
in our country, in and out of the Episcopal denomina- 
tion, who are for treating High-Churchism in its mod- 
ern developments gingerly, could have heard the lash- 
ing given it by the Lord Bishop of Cashel, in Exeter 
Hall. It would have nerved their energies to treat its 
assumptions as they richly deserve. Bad, in many re- 
spects, as is the Irish establishment, it has too much 
of Popery around it to fall in love with any of its tricks 
or devices. There is no Puseyism in Ireland. There 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 31 

Dr. Duff. His manner of speaking. 

should be none within the wide domain of Protestant- 
ism. 

But, beyond all question, the man of the meeting was 
Dr. Duff, the great Scotch missionary at Calcutta. I 
had heard of him — I had read his powerful and moving 
addresses and communications, but now I saw and 
heard him. The day was chilly, and he sat near me, 
wrapped up in a cloak. He is quite tall, probably six 
feet two or three inches, when he takes the folds out 
of his body. He is a very slender man, with a small 
head, thick black hair, combed back from his forehead 
and temples, deep-sunken black eyes, hollow cheeks, 
and presenting, on the whole, a worn, sickly aspect. 
His accent is of the broadest Scotch, and his delivery 
most furious. When his name was announced, the 
hall rang again. He commenced like a race-horse, 
and kept in full gallop to the close of a very long speech. 
He twisted his body into all possible shapes — at one 
time, a part of the tail of his coat was over his shoulder ; 
at another, he had every available portion of it closely 
packed under one arm, so as to reveal his waistcoat 
midway to his shoulders. I never heard such a torrent 
of information, of history, of invective, of figure and 
illustration, of vigorous grappling with pantheism, in- 
fidelity, and formalism, and of earnest exhortation to 
the whole host of God's elect to a bold and united as- 
sault upon the army of the aliens. And as he traced 
the progress of the soul emerging from the darkness of 
nature into the light of revelation, and by the aid of 
that light ascending step by step until introduced to 
the general assembly and Church of the First-born in 
lieaven, he held his audience in breathless silence. 



32 



MEN AND THINGS 



The anniversary one of great interest. 



When he concluded his speech he was dripping with 
perspiration ; and the moment his last words were ut- 
tered, he rolled his cloak around him, and, amid the 
tumultuous applause of the house, darted out of the 
hall. 

This meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Soci- 
ety had other besides religious interest to me. There 
were seen to meet and mingle all classes of men and 
Christians on the common platform of their humanity 
and Christianity. Dukes and earls were there in com- 
mon dress, plain as the plainest ; and if there was any 
difference, with less force of intellect than their unti- 
tled brethren. Yet it was charming to see their posi- 
tion and influence on the right side, and to hear the 
strain of humble, fervent, earnest piety that ran through 
all their speeches. There is much salt mingled with 
the corruption which pervades the English aristocracy. 
Lord Ashley, Sir Robert Ingles, and the Earl of Har- 
rowby, are not, however, true samples of their class. 
They form the exceptions. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 33 

St. Paul's. The Tower. The waiters. 



CHAPTER V. 

St. Paul's. — The Tower. — The Thames. — Westminster Abbey. — 
Stone of Destiny. — Regent's Square Church. — Dr. Hamilton. — St. 
James's. — Westminster. — Bishop Wilberforce. 

The Cathedral of Saint Paul's, London, is a huge 
superstructure, surmounting a hill, in a crowded part 
of the city, near the Thames. Its immense walls are 
being covered with the memorials of great men, who 
hy sea and land have extended and are extending the 
dominion of England. It did not impress us as we 
expected, and we felt that the busts and boasting epi- 
taphs of naval and military commanders might be some- 
where else than in a house consecrated to the worship 
of God. 

The Tower of London is a collection of many build- 
ings inclosed within a wall, whose gates are strongly 
guarded. Its bloody history is known in all the earth. 
We were shown the Armory, a long room crowded with 
men on horseback, illustrating the kind of armor worn 
for six centuries past. The waiter, in harlequin dress, 
who conducts you through it, gives you a brief and 
rapid history of each knight, and gets you on and out 
as quickly as possible. He gives you not a minute to 
sketch, note, or consider. The small, secluded room, 
where are deposited the crown and crown jewels, is 
an object of curiosity. Our company was counted as 
we entered it ; we were then given over to quite a 
"Uainty old lady in cap and gloves, who took us around 
B 2 



34 MEN AND THINGS 

Crown and jewels. Sail on the Thames. 

a glass case, and gave us a hurried account of the va- 
rious articles it inclosed, which she valued at twenty 
millions, hut whether pounds or dollars I do not re- 
member, nor is it material. We were again counted 
as we went out, and the door was shut. To one whose 
heart has often bled in reading of the atrocities there 
committed, and whose imagination has magnified it 
into a most massive and towering prison, a frowning 
relic of barbarism, it is a most flat affair. Its bloody 
history alone invests it with the least interest, and there 
are but few bloodier spots in Europe. As you pass over 
its rough pavements and through its dark passages, 
you feel as if haunted by the ghosts of the queens, 
princes, nobles, saints, and sinners who were there le- 
gally and illegally murdered. What a bloody history 
is that of England ! 

A sail up or down the Thames is a curious affair. It 
runs through the city, and is one of the great thorough- 
fares of the town. It is crowded with small steamers, 
which stop at given points for receiving and discharg- 
ing passengers, which is done with great rapidity. It 
was our lot to see it and sail upon it when the tide 
was down, and then the stream was small, the cur- 
rent rapid, and the bed of the river exceedingly filthy. 
Above the London Bridge, the rear of the houses and 
warehouses run down to the river, which renders the 
prospect any thing but pleasant to those upon its wa- 
ters. Paris has made every thing of the Seine, and 
Dublin much of the Liffy, but London has made noth- 
ing of the Thames for its adornment. Its shipping and 
great docks lie below the London Bridge. 

Westminster Abbey is a fine specimen of the old 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 35 

Westminster Abbey. Lia fail. Dr. Hamilton's church. 

Grothic architecture. Days might be spent in viewing 
and noting its points of interest, and the tombs of the 
illustrious in letters. Its general plan is that of a Latin 
cross. In the Poet's Corner are the monuments of the 
most distinguished poets of England ; in other parts of 
it are those of statesmen, warriors, scholars, and artists, 
who have shed lustre on the British name. The mon- 
archs of England are crowned in its choir, where under 
the coronation chair is the famous stone " Lia fail," or 
"stone of destiny," on which the kings of Ireland were 
crowned for ages, and which had the peculiar property 
of giving forth a terrific sound when any of the royal 
Scythian race was crowned upon it, and of being si- 
lent on all other occasions. It was taken from Tara to 
Scone, in Scotland, and thence to England, and over it 
the coronation chair now stands. The star of empire 
is said to be governed by the movements of this stone ! 
The Irish legends have much to say about the " Lia 
fail," and the good genius of Ireland yet weeps over its 
removal. With its return to Tara there will be a re- 
turn of empire ! 

I declined all invitations to preach in London, that 
I might spend a Sabbath in hearing and seeing for my- 
self. As a good Presbyterian, I went to the church on 
Regent Square, to hear the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, so fav- 
orably known in our own country by several attract- 
ive, popular, and truly evangelical works. This is the 
church in which Irving once preached with a popular- 
ity which has never been equaled — when prime min- 
isters, dukes, and nobles were willing to enter by a win- 
dow to hear him. The church is plain, but substan- 
tial and large. I entered it before service commenced, 



36 MEN AND THINGS 

How seated. Dr. Hamilton. St. James's. 

and was shown to a backless bench in the middle aisle ! 
I had the consolation of seeing others, male and female, 
treated with equal politeness. After the service com- 
menced we were invited to empty pews, of which there 
were several. Others accepted, but I declined the 
honor; and, partly out of ill humor with their way 
of treating strangers, I kept my backless seat through 
the service. Instead of Dr. Hamilton, my old friend 
Dr. Cunningham, so widely and favorably known in 
America, rose in the pulpit and performed the entire 
service. It was a missionary sermon from 2 Cor., v., 
14, 15 — full of matter, sound, long, and exhaustive of 
the text. It was Scotch throughout. After service I 
was introduced, in the vestry, to Dr. Hamilton, with 
whom I went to dinner, in company with Dr. Cunning- 
ham. Dr. Hamilton is very like his books — pleasant, 
imaginative, free in conversation, full of information, 
cheerful, with face, accent, and manner which would 
prove his north Tweed origin if met in the moon. 

Hearing that Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford, was to 
preach a charity sermon in St. James's, "Westminster, in 
company with Dr. Cunningham, I took a very long walk 
to hear him. The house was thronged when we reach- 
ed it, and we went into the gallery. I took a stand in 
front of a seat which had two persons in it, but there 
was no invitation to enter. After keeping my stand- 
ing position for some time, I heard my name rather 
audibly whispered into the ear of the beef-headed John 
Bull that kept the seat, and by some person who had 
seen me at Exeter Hall, when I was invited in. My 
temper was much the same as at Regent's Square ; but, 
as my feet were not in the best (Condition to sustain it, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 37 

The prayers. Bishop of Oxford's sermon. His person. 

I bowed and entered. The service was read intoler- 
ably, and was rendered ludicrous in one portion of it, 
where the minister paused, and, by way of parenthesis, 
gave the name of a lady who desired to offer public 
thanks for her safe delivery of a son ! The singing was 
performed by boys. The Bishop was heralded from the 
vestry by a man wearing a military chapeau, and hold- 
ing in his hand a wand of office ; he conducted him to 
the pulpit, arranged his robes, and shut him in. His 
text was John, xvi., 26, and the sermon was decidedly 
the poorest I heard in Europe. It was short, pointless, 
and, save in a single paragraph at the close, without 
any reference to the subject for which the collection 
was solicited. He is said to be one of the ablest bish- 
ops on the bench, and if his was a specimen of their 
preaching, I could most devoutly unite in the language 
of the Liturgy, and pray, from such homilies, " may 
the good Lord deliver us." The Bishop is a short, not 
handsome man, of youthful appearance, with consider- 
able character for cleverness and eloquence. He is re- 
garded as a Tractarian, and as sympathizing in many 
things with some of his kindred who have already gone 
to Rome. He so manages, however, as to excite the 
hopes and the fears of each of the parties into which the 
Church of England is divided, each party having claim- 
ed and disowned him. To such an extent has he car- 
ried this double dealing, as to have secured for himself 
the appellation of " Slippery Sam." 

How must the sainted spirit of "William" Wilberforce 
regard, from its abode on high, the unworthy conduct 
of his erring sons ! Well said Solomon, that we know 
not who shall come after us, whether they be wise men 
or whether they be fools. 



38 MEN AND THINGS 

Parliament House. House of Lords. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Lawrence. — Parliament House. — House of Lords. — Lord Chan- 
cellor. — Duke of Argyle. — Wee Willie Skinner. — Lord Grey. — 
Bishop Wilberforce. — Tout ensemble. — Law Lords. — Sir Culling 
Eardley. — Badinage. 

Through the kindness of Mr. Lawrence, our minister 
at the Court of St. James, and who, by his urbanity, 
ability, and attentions to his countrymen, has won for 
himself golden opinions in all quarters, myself and trav- 
eling companion got admission to the House of Lords. 
This is an apartment in the new House of Parliament, 
just as our Senate Chamber is an apartment in the Cap- 
itol at Washington. By-the-way, the Parliament House, 
now approaching completion, struck me as greatly un- 
English. It looks unsubstantial and undignified, be- 
cause of the profusion of its ornamental and filagree 
work. It impresses you as does a very large lady with 
manifold pretensions, flounced and ruffled from head to 
foot. When finished, it will be, however, a great affair. 
It stands on the Thames and opposite to Westminster 
Abbey, the street only separating them. 

The way to the gallery of the House of Lords is just 
about as plain as is the way to the gallery of our own 
House of Representatives, or Senate Chamber, in Wash- 
ington. You need either a guide, or to be taught to 
thread the labyrinth. We were shown the way, and 
entered the gorgeous apartment. It is an oblong room, 
most richly carved and gilded, with the throne on one 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 39 

Woolsack. Lord Chancellor. Wee Willy Skinner. 

end, and the gallery in which we sat on the other. The 
doors of admission tg the floor were on either side of 
the throne and opposite to us ; there must have heen 
one or more beneath us, as on the adjournment the 
Lord Chancellor made his exit in that direction. The 
" Woolsack" is a plain, oblong settee, without back, 
placed in the middle of the room, and upon which the 
Lord Chancellor sat, who seems to act as the presiding 
officer of the body, although never so addressed. Each 
speaker addresses " My Lords." The members sit 
upon plain benches, rising like steps one above another. 
The furnishing, and the carving, and gilding of the 
room form a very strong contrast. We were seated 
by an English clergyman who was acquainted with the 
persons of all the peers, and who was ready to answer 
all our questions. The woolsack was occupied by the 
Chancellor in his robes, and buried in an enormous wig 
of office. My friend asked me if he did not remind me 
of quite an old lady in my congregation, now verging to- 
ward eighty years ! The Duke of Argyle was there, tall, 
straight, bold, with hair as red as a lobster, and, from 
what I saw, of corresponding temper. He is the man 
who, having partaken of the communion in the Episco- 
pal Chapel in Glasgow, with his wife, was afterward 
excommunicated for partaking of it in his own church, 
the Presbyterian. The Bishop who issued the bull is a 
small, crooked man, formed after the pattern of a note of 
interrogation. The bull commenced thus: "We, Wil- 
liam Skinner, Bishop," &c. ; and from that day to this, 
he is laughed at all over Britain as "Wee Willy Skin- 
ner." Lord Stanley was there, now ex-prime minister, 
tall, thin, thoughtful, buttoned up to his chin, and ap- 



40 MEN AND THINGS 

Lord Stanley. Lord Grey. Bishop Wilberforce. 

parently in poor health. Lord Grey was there, son of 
a former premier, of most ungainly aspect, his knees 
boxing when he walked, as if bending under the weight 
of his slender form. There was quite a mixture of the 
fat and the lean, the tall and the short, the smart and 
the stupid. There was the Bishop of Cork, in full ca- 
nonicals, old and infirm. 

"And who is that?" said I to my neighbor, as a lord 
spiritual entered, dressed in lawn, and took his seat. 

" Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford," was the reply ; 
" and one of the most able and eloquent debaters here." 

" I heard him preach a wretched sermon yesterday, 
at St. James's," said I. 

" Oh, he does not care much about preaching ; he 
lays out his strength here," said my kind informant. 

" What kind of a man is he ?" I asked. 

" Well, I do not know ; we all call him ' Slippery 
Sam,' " was the reply. 

" And who is that ?" said I, as a fine person entered, 
rotund, bald, affable in manner, and of pleasant and 
mild aspect. 

" The richest peer of England, the Marquis of West- 
minster," was the reply. 

The stars of the House were not there — -the Iron 
Duke had just rode away from the House as we ap- 
proached it. 

On the whole, I was most unfavorably impressed 
with all I saw in the Upper House. All wore their hats 
save when they rose to speak ; then they took them off, 
and put them on again as soon as they ended. They 
walked about without any restraint. The old men 
looked stupid — indeed, one was asleep — and the young 
lords, who formed the majority, seemed trifling in their 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 41 

A contrast. Law Lords. Sir Culling Eardley. 

manners and appearance. I know not of a point in 
which they do not fail in comparison with the Senate 
of the United States, especially when adorned by Clay, 
"Webster, and Calhoun. And the question arises, "Why 
do the decisions of such a body upon great law points 
carry such weight over that empire upon which the sun 
never sets ? The reason is, that the " Law Lords" 
alone decide such points. In theory every Lord has a 
vote, but the carrying out of the theory would be con- 
trary to that uniform practice which has given sym- 
metry, and uniformity, and confidence to the judicial 
decisions of the House of Lords. Is there not a lesson 
here for our country to learn ? 

The name of Sir Culling Eardley is known to the 
extreme boundaries of philanthropy and religion. I 
was introduced to him by Mr. Henderson, of Park, and 
accepted an invitation to spend an evening at his beau- 
tiful residence at Belvidere, about fourteen miles from 
London, on the Thames. He is a man of middle size, 
pleasant, affable, well educated, simple in his manners, 
and a zealous, humble Christian. The evening I spent 
in his family, in company with a gentleman from India 
and a minister from France, will not be soon forgotten. 

" To what Church do you belong, sir ?" said Lady 
Eardley to me, as I sat by her side at the tea-table. 

" To the Presbyterian," was my reply. 

" Dear me !" said she ; " from the way in which Sir 
Culling spoke of you, I supposed you were an Ameri- 
can bishop." 

" Well, I am," I replied. 

The following conversation then arose, to the no lit- 
tle amusement of Sir Culling and his friend from In- 
dia, both of whom had seceded from the Episcopal 



42 



MEN AND THINGS 



The true difference. Cure for difficulties. 

Church, while Lady Eardley has continued her adhe- 
rence to it. 

"Do you Presbyterians believe in bishops ?" 

" Certainly ; as all our standards teach." 

" And how do you ordain ministers ?" 

" By the laying on of the hands of the bishops com- 
posing a Presbytery." 

" In what, then, do you Presbyterians differ from us 
Episcopalians ?" 

" In this : we have more bishops than you, and more 
dioceses. We make every minister settled over a par- 
ish a bishop, and we make every parish a diocese. 
And if you would do so here in England, you would 
have far less trouble than you do." 

"Well, I have never understood the difference be- 
tween you and us before ; and I do not know but that 
it would be a great improvement upon our Church to 
introduce your system into England. What do you 
think, Sir Culling ?" 

While he made no reply, laughing merrily at the 
badinage, I have no doubt but that he heartily as- 
sented to the improvement it would make in England 
to convert every parish into a diocese, and every good 
minister into a bishop. It would certainly save them 
from such flares-up as the Philpotts of Exeter make. 
Generations to come will call Sir Culling blessed. In 
many of his expectations from his Alliance I deem him 
visionary. Yet he will have his reward. He has the 
heart of a philanthropist. The glory of England would 
be resplendent as the sun if all its aristocracy were 
like him. He is unwearied in well-doing, and in due 
time he will reap his reward. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 43 

To Dover. The town. Fortifications. 



CHAPTER VII 

London to Dover. — Dover. — A Voyage to Calais. — Official Imposi- 
tion. — Landing in France. — A true Picture. — Ride from Calais to 
Paris. — The Country. — Wind-mills. — People. — A Dissertation on 
Vanes. 

The railway from London to Dover lies through a 
beautiful though level country. To an American ac- 
customed to the hold scenery of the Hudson, and who 
has crossed the Alleghanies, and who has spent years 
among the G-reen Mountains, England seems quite 
tame in physical aspect ; to a traveler from Switzer- 
land, it seems level as the ocean in a calm. In the 
month of May, a magnificent cultivation every where 
presents itself. Dover is a very bleak place, lying un- 
der snowy chalk cliffs upon the sea. All the sur- 
rounding hills are covered with the strongest fortifica- 
tions, which in the distance look like old ruins, that add 
so much to the romantic beauty of the Rhine. They 
look out upon the old enemy of England, and are kept 
in the finest repair. Upon one of their walls lay for 
a long time the famous old cannon, pointing over the 
Channel, upon whose breech was written the sentence, 



" Keep me dry, and keep me clean, 
And I'll carry a ball to Calais green. 



The town itself looks like a poor old man of eighty 
years, all whose friends had preceded him to the tomb. 
As the rail-car turns the point where you get your first 



44 MEN AND THINGS 



Royal names. Imposition. 



sight of the Channel, the shores of France lie in full 
view. 

We were here hurried on board a miserable steamer 
for Calais, built after the very worst fashion of these 
vessels in England. It was dignified by some royal 
name, and belonged to some royal company, and was 
commanded by some captain of her majesty's royal ser- 
vice ! Who ever heard of royal names so contemptibly 
bestowed ! The wind was fresh, and the sea rough. 
As soon as we left the shelter of the pier, we were all 
drenched by the spray of the short, chopping waves 
dashing our bark, and from which there was no possi- 
ble protection. Soon all were sick. My worst Atlan- 
tic sickness was drinking nectar in comparison to this ! 
And before we were half seas over, and while yet sweat- 
ingunder the violence of our ejections, a man with a gold 
band around his cap stood before me, and demanded, 
in true John Bull accent, " Your ticket." I had paid 
in London through to Paris ; I handed him my ticket. 
" Four shillings, sir," said he. " For what?" said I. 
"For your seat in the boat, and for attendance," he re- 
plied. " I have paid to Paris, and I have had no at- 
tendance," I answered. " Four shillings — you might 
have had attendance if you asked for it," he bluffly re- 
plied. As well as a person almost sick unto death 
could do it, I found, slowly, four shillings, and as I 
slowly counted them into his^hands, I said to him, 
" You and your government should be indicted, first, 
for such wretched accommodations upon such a thor- 
oughfare ; and, next, for your gross impositions." I 
think I was less amiable between Dover and Calais 
than I remember to have been during any part of my 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 45 

Hard skins. Home feeling gone. Life picture. 

journey. If her majesty's servant was not cut by what 
I said, it was not my fault. I put on my sentence the 
keenest edge I could ; but such officials have usually 
a very hard skin. Theirs is the scaly hide of the levia- 
than. If such extortions were practiced in the United 
States, they would be bruited through Europe as 
Americanisms. 

Until I placed my foot on the quay of Calais, I main- 
tained a home feeling, but when I saw men of foreign 
aspect all around me, and heard them shouting in a 
foreign tongue, the feeling fled. I was in a strange 
land ! My little French was put immediately into re- 
quisition; but the vacant stare, and the "non compren- 
dre" of the Frank soon made me feel that my accent, 
or idiom, or both, were at fault. And I returned the 
compliment of " non comprendre," when a French- 
man, wishing to do me a service "for a compensation," 
poured a torrent of French into my face. On hearing 
a Frenchman speak, it has always seemed to me as if 
his words were all connected, without space, comma, 
colon, or period to divide them, as if they came out in 
a continuous stream, just like a jet of water. But 
never did this seem so to me to the same degree as at 
Calais, when surrounded by porters, waiters, commis- 
sionaires,' each anxious to secure the privilege of wait- 
ing on you, and on as many others as possible. To have 
half a dozen of men bowing to you — talking to you — 
wishing to serve you — recommending a hotel here — a 
restaurant there — one asking for your passport — another 
ready to fly off with your baggage, and not to under- 
stand a word they say, and only able to conjecture what 
they wish to do ; and then to be at your wits' ends to 



46 MEN AND THINGS 

Calais. Arras. The raw material. 

know where to turn, and ready to die with laughter at 
the efforts all around you of the English to speak French, 
and of the French to speak English — if this is not a 
picture of an American landing from a crazy English 
steamer, the remembrance of which makes him sea- 
sick, on the quay at Calais, then my readers may draw 
their own picture, and to their own liking. However 
others felt on that memorable day, I felt that I was 
from home ! 

Calais, which I care not to see again until Yictoria 
provides a better steamer, until I speak French, or the 
people learn English, is a walled town, and strongly 
fortified. It looks out upon Dover with jealous eye, 
and was for two centuries the key of the British pos- 
sessions in France. There we took the cars, and after 
slowly winding out of the town, we hastened on our 
way through Lille, Douay , Arras, Amiens, and Clermont, 
to Paris. The country is level through the whole route, 
with scarcely a hillock to break the dull monotony. 
Arras, the birth-place of the bloody Robespierre, lives 
by wind-mills. As the rail-car made a rapid semicircle 
round the city, I strove to count them, but such was the 
confusion made by the tossing of their huge arms in the 
air, I soon gave it up as hopeless. The lands are well 
cultivated, and some places of great beauty occasionally 
present themselves to the eye ; but the people of the 
country seem everywhere in the raw material. Every 
where the women were seen working in the fields, and 
in one case we saw a man and woman drawing a har- 
row. Papal churches were very numerous, but their 
steeples were surmounted by roosters instead of crosses. 
Why a rooster? I would request a certain ecclesiolog- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 47 

Roosters. Uniformity desirable. A good emblem. 

ical society, formed some time since in New- York, to 
direct their profound investigations to the solution of 
this question. Bats, owls, and roosters, I should think, 
were very much in their line. There is some difference 
between crosses and roosters, and as the latter may 
have some .reference to the cock whose crowing brought 
Peter to repentance, it is a matter of grave inquiry which 
should surmount a steeple. In this day of emblems 
there ought to be an effort at uniformity upon this mat- 
ter. Some steeples are surmounted by weather-vanes 
— some by crosses — some by balls — and, sad to narrate, 
one, at least, by a pumpkin ! but I am free to confess, 
that if they could only crow, and if their crowing would 
only have the effect of one of old upon those who trace 
their ecclesiastical descent from Peter or Judas, I would 
vote for roosters. Besides, a rooster is a most portly 
bird, and walks with a proud tread, and a high head, 
and quite an air of authority among his barn-yard fam- 
ily; and what better emblem does the world afford of 
a modern successor of the apostles ? I go for chanti- 
cleer versus crosses. I like his archiepiscopal air ! 

"We left London after breakfast in the morning, and 
took tea at Paris in the evening, flying from city to 
city in twelve hours ! Before nine in the evening we 
were resting in our rooms in the Hotel Windsor, in Rue 
Uivoli, which looks out upon the magnificent garden 
of the Tuileries. 



48 



MEN AND THINGS 



First walk. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Paris. — Garden of the Tuileries : its Beauty. — Night Walk. — Palais 
Royal : its Gardens. — Arbre de Cracovie. — Jardin des Plantes. — 
Pere la Chaise : its Epitaphs. 

Paris ! Paris ! of world-wide fame for its splendor, 
its palaces, its fashions, its arts, its revolutions, its 
wickedness, its rivers of blood, its cooks, and its milli- 
ners — I am now in Paris ! As it has no environs like 
London, you pass at once from an open country into a 
crowded city. And as you are driven from the depot, 
through narrow streets, to your hotel, you are over- 
whelmed with disappointment, and ask at every turn, 
is this Paris ? Many of its most fashionable streets are 
as narrow as Nassau Street, in New York ; are without 
any side walks, paved with round stones, and with a 
channel in the centre to carry off the water ! In tread- 
ing your way through them, you have to dodge the 
wagons, carriages, and people as you can. And yet 
Paris is a magnificent city ; but its beauty lies in spots. 
I will describe things as I saw them. 

After a pleasant night's rest, a little farther from the 
earth than would be convenient in case of fire or earth- 
quake, myself and friend sallied out to see sights. Our 
first walk was through the garden of the Tuileries from 
the palace, through the Place de la Concorde, Champs 
Elysees, up, up to the triumphal arch, L'Etoile. French- 
men say that this is the most beautiful promenade in 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 49 

Its beauty. Night walk. Palais Royal. 

the world. And I have no reason to question it. Start- 
ing from the main entrance of the famous old Palace, 
whose every window and chamher have their bloody 
history, and walking leisurely along through shady 
groves, by magnificent fountains, greeted at every turn 
by the finest chiseled statuary — with the Madeleine, 
and the Palace of Ministers on the one hand, with the 
Hotel d'Orsay, the Palais Bourbon, and the Chamber 
of Deputies on the other, from which you are separated 
by the Seine with its graceful bridges, your emotions 
of pleasure increase at every step, until you are over- 
whelmed. You can do little more than stand, gaze, 
and wonder. And beautiful as is this walk by day, it 
is still more enchanting by night ; when, with the stars 
overhead, and every avenue and fountain brilliantly 
lighted, and marble men and women gazing upon you 
from every mound and from under every tree, and 
with the soothing notes of music floating around you 
wherever you wander over the vast area of beauty and 
magnificence, you feel the magic effect melting you 
into sympathy with the scenes around you. I doubt 
whether the world can present any thing to be com- 
pared in beauty to that portion of Paris which lies be- 
tween the Palace of the Tuileries and the Triumphal 
Arch, that noble monument to the memory of Napo- 
leon the Great. 

The Palais Royal is another of the beautiful spots of 
Paris. It is said to be to Paris what Paris is to France. 
It covers an entire square, built up on all sides, with 
splendid entrances to the enchanting grounds that form 
the centre. This palace, with its gardens, courts, gal- 
leries, and arcades, is the great central point of pleasure. 

C 



50 MEN AND THINGS 

A changing crowd. A place of sin. Jardin des Plantes. 

In this garden was the celebrated tree — the famous 
" arbre de Cracovie" — under whose shade politicians 
decided the fate of nations. Every thing here is in- 
tended for the gratification of the senses. There is noth- 
ing here pure, natural, spiritual — and the uncorrupted 
stranger soon wishes himself away from the intoxica- 
ting labyrinth. Here are restaurants, gambling-rooms, 
wine, milliner, and jewelry shops on the most gorgeous 
scale. In these gardens may be found, early in the 
morning, the tradesmen — at nine, the coffee-houses be- 
gin to fill — from twelve to two, the gay world is there 
— from two to five, the avenues are crowded with nur- 
sery-maids and children — about eight, the women of 
the town make their appearance, when every thing is 
brilliantly illuminated, and every thing is bustle, gay, 
noisy, and intoxicating until twelve, when the crowd 
melts away. The Palais Royal presents, on a fine night, 
a true picture of the frivolity, luxury, versatility, sen- 
suality, and corruption of the French people. It is a 
brilliant spot, and there are but few in the world where 
more sin is committed in each twenty-four hours in the 
year. It is said to be changing for the better. 

The Jardin des Plantes forms another of the great at- 
tractions of this great city. Here the taste and science 
of Buffon and Cuvier are remarkably displayed. Its 
botanic gardens are extensive and most elegantly ar- 
ranged. Its cabinets of minerals are on the largest 
scale. Its zoological gardens contain every animal 
under heaven. And here are delivered lectures on the 
natural sciences, by the most eminent savans, at public 
expense, and to about 1800 students, from April to Oc- 
tober in each year. This Jardin is the pride of France, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 51 

Beasts protected. Pere la Chaise. 

and has been alike regarded by Absolutists and Dem- 
ocrats, by monarchs and mobs. When the Terrorists 
were daily sending to the guillotine hundreds of men 
and women, they ordered the lions, tigers, and hyenas 
of the great menagerie to be respected. They treated 
them as brethren. And when foreign troops occupied 
Paris in 1815, by special agreement, this wonderful 
place was protected from injury. I spent more time 
in these magnificent grounds and museums than at 
any other place in Paris. 

I was greatly disappointed in Pere la Chaise. It lies 
on a rising ground outside the wall of the city, and con- 
tains about 150 acres. It received its name from a 
Jesuit priest who once lived there, and was opened as 
a cemetery only in 1804. Its main approach is through 
an avenue lined on both sides with stone-cutters' shops, 
who have marble fashioned in all forms ready for let- 
tering ; and with retailers of wreaths, of all colors and 
sizes, for the decoration of the tombs of the departed. 
These retailers are very importunate in the sale of their 
chattels. You enter the grounds by a wide avenue, 
but are soon lost among the narrow paths that lead off 
in every direction. It is thick with stones and monu- 
ments, so as in many cases to render a passage be- 
tween them impossible. The elegant tombs are but 
few, while the inelegant are in great numbers, and all 
of them holding up for perusal "boasting epitaphs," so 
as to impress you with the belief that none but the 
great, the virtuous, the heroic, and the pious found se- 
pulture there. The tomb of Abelard and Heloise is a 
gem of its kind. There is a fine bust of Casimir Pe- 
rier over his grave, which bears a striking likeness to 



52 MEN AND THINGS 

Epitaphs. Frivolity. Greenwood. 

that of our own lamented "Webster. The grave of Mar- 
shal Ney, whose murder Wellington might have pre- 
vented, and whose not doing so is without excuse, is 
shown you, without a stone to tell the stranger whose 
ashes repose there. "Why," I asked the guide, "is 
there no monument to Ney?" " France is his monu- 
ment," was the sentimental reply. We smile at the 
simplicity, not to say silliness, of the inscriptions which 
are often seen in our own rural grave-yards ; but when 
you read upon the monuments in Pere la Chaise such 
sentiments as these, 

" His widow continues his business, Rue Saint 
Denis, 340." 

" Very high, very powerful princess, aged one day 1 '' 
— one is ready to conclude that there are things to ex- 
cite a smile out of America as well as in it. 

The religion and frivolity of the French are both con- 
spicuous in this far-famed cemetery. A Popish chapel 
is within the gate, where any body may have mass said 
"for a compensation." Crosses are upon the tombs of 
both saints and sinners. And frequently you are at- 
tracted by a small group looking through an iron grat- 
ing into a tomb, where is an altar in the form of a 
lady's dressing table, with vases of flowers, sometimes 
natural, more frequently artificial, a gilt lamp, silver 
candlesticks, and all the usual et ceteras of a boudoir. 
This is French taste. And people crowd to see those 
things just as they crowd round the windows of taste 
and fashion in the Palais Royal. Save in the splendid 
views which you occasionally catch from its highest 
points, Pere la Chaise is not to be compared in natural- 
ness, taste, or beauty to Greenwood or Mount Auburn. 
It is in every respect inferior to the cemetery at Naples. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 53 

NOtre Dame. Its histories. Appearance. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Notre Dotnie: — The Power of the Keys. — A Shaving Shop in a Cathe- 
dral. — Hotel Dieu. — A Nun in a Circle. — Vincennes. — A Mistake. 
— Blame divided. — The Donjon. — Salle de la Question. — Justice 
will come. 

I am not yet out of Paris. 

Notre Dame is the Cathedral of Paris — the historic 
church of France. It has its place in the bloody revo- 
lutions and persecutions of the country. It is on the 
" Isle de la Cite," and of course in the most ancient 
part of the city, and is conspicuous by its double Grothic 
towers. It was here that " Te Deums" were sung on 
the cruel murder of Protestants — that a courtesan was 
crowned as the G-oddess of Reason during the frenzy of 
the Revolution — and that Napoleon placed the imperial 
crown on his own head, and that of Josephine, in 1804, 
in the presence of the Pope, and of an assemblage more 
brilliant than any Paris ever witnessed before or since. 
A star wrought in the marble marks the spot where 
he stood on that great occasion. 

As you approach this pile of masonry you are struck 
with its dingy appearance — its antique bas-reliefs, and 
the magnificent circular window between the towers, 
said to be thirty feet in diameter. It is French in its 
appearance. Yarious hands and ages have had to do 
with it ; and it is yet unfinished. We entered a side 
door into the tower, and soon the vast interior was be- 
fore us. The floor is of marble. There are no seats. 



54 



MEN AND THINGS 



Interior. Power of the keys. Robes and relics. 

Piles of split-bottom chairs with high hacks are on 
either hand, which one can hire for a few sous at any 
time. On the sides are altars, and candles, and con- 
fession boxes ; and we saw here and there an old wo- 
man or a young servant whispering confessions into 
the ear of a priest, whose face, whether from shame or 
wine, recalled the color of Burgundy. The grand altar 
is shut out from the body of the church by an iron rail- 
ing, within which you can enter — " for a compensa- 
tion." A silver or golden key has great efficacy within 
the dominions of Popery. It will open a church, or 
chapel, or relic box : it opens the gates of Paradise or 
Purgatory. Between the railing and the grand altar 
are some magnificent paintings. On either side of this 
altar, but shut out from it, are rooms which contain 
treasures and relics. In them we were shown the 
splendid robe in which Napoleon was crowned, priestly 
robes embroidered with gold, gifts of popes and kings 
made at different times to this old Cathedral, and, 
passing from the sublime to the ridiculous, the bullet 
which killed Affre, the archbishop of Paris, during the 
emeute of 1848 ! 

As we passed round the building, we saw here and 
there poor, ragged devotees praying before pictures, 
counting their beads, and leaning over chairs. It ap- 
peared far more like a heathen than a Christian tem- 
ple. As we were going out we passed a confessional 
where a female was confessing, and two others were 
waiting for their turn. " There is a shaving shop," 
said one of the company in broken English. Startled 
by the remark, and by hearing my own tongue, even 
in foreign accent, I joined conversation with the per- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 55 

A shaving shop. Type of Popery. H6tel Dien. 

son. " Why call it a shaving shop ?" said I. " They 
take money from the people for nothing, and seduce 
the women," was the reply. I found him to he a French 
merchant from New York, who had been Drought up 
in the Papal Church, and who had seen enough of its 
priests to form a true estimate of them. 

Notre Dame is inferior to St. Paul's or to Westmin- 
ster Abbey. It is in an old and crowded part of the 
city, where nothing can be seen to advantage. Although 
the laying of its foundations dates back to the fabulous 
ages of remote antiquity, it is yet unfinished. It is in 
many respects a type of the Romish Church — it lifts 
itself high — it has much external pretension — it is din- 
gy and faded — while internally it is empty, and cold, 
and damp. We were chilled there on a hot day ; it 
was pleasant to get out into the air and sunshine. 

Under the shadow of Notre Dame is the Hotel Dieu, 
the most ancient hospital of Paris, whose foundations 
date back to the seventh century, It has been gradual- 
ly enlarged by public and private benefactions, until it 
now contains upward of 800 beds. Here the sick and 
wounded are received, with the exception of children, 
incurable and insane persons, and those with cutaneous 
diseases. The yearly average of patients is 12,000, 
and the mortality one in eight. We were taken through 
it by an official wearing a chapeau militaire, and whose 
step indicated that he had often marched to the tap of 
the drum. There is one immense hall with three rows 
of beds, nearly all of which were filled with sick men. 
Every thing was perfectly neat — the rooms, beds, cook- 
ing, washing, waiting. Not an unpleasant odor was 
perceptible. Altars, candles, and crucifixes were of- 



56 MEN AND THINGS 

A group. A nun reading. Unexpected visit 

fensively numerous. We saw here and there a lazy- 
looking priest confessing the sick ; the nuns were nu- 
merous. But the sight which most deeply impressed 
me was that of a circle of recovering invalids around a 
sister, who in a sweet and earnest manner was read- 
ing to them from a book. Our approach diverted the 
attention of some of them, hut the nun read on. I did 
not approach near enough to see the hook, or to hear 
any of its contents. But it did not look like a Bible — 
probably not a copy of it is to be found in the building — 
and I suppose she was reading to them from the Lives 
of the Saints, that miserable fabrication of lying legends 
and old wives' fables, by which the priests would every 
where supplant the Word of God. These poor nuns are 
every where the dupes of the priests, when they are 
nothing worse. The Hotel Dieu bore to us a much 
greater resemblance to the house of G-od than does the 
Notre Dame under whose shadow it reclines. 

We made quite an unexpected visit one morning to 
Yincennes, outside the wall of the city, and famous in 
history as a royal residence, and for its being a prison 
of state, and now one of the strongest fortifications in 
the kingdom or empire. We started for Yersailles, and 
were put down at Vincennes. So much for our bad 
French and the roguery of the coacher. He insisted 
that we said Yincennes instead of Yersailles, and we 
thought he lied about it to get our money. But we 
also thought, as the fare was paid, the best plan was to 
divide the blame — to charge half the mistake to our 
French, and the other half to his falsehood, and to act 
like heroes. Yet there before us was the Donjon where 
the gallant Henry V. of England reigned and died— 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 57 

The Donjon. Salle de la Question. Spirits waiting. 

which was converted into a prison hy Louis VI. — where 
the Duke d'Enghien was murdered in 1804 — where 
Polignac, minister of Charles X., was imprisoned in 
1830 — and where yet is to be seen the " Salle de la 
Question," with its fearful bed, upon which men were 
tortured during the application of the " Question." 
Heaven only knows the cruelties committed within that 
Donjon, through those long years when French kings 
perpetrated crimes by " lettres de cachet" which are 
a disgrace to humanity. "We almost forgive the rogue- 
ry of the driver, who, to get a shilling out of stran- 
gers, took us to Vincennes, as we had thus an oppor- 
tunity of gazing upon a place so famous in history, and 
upon that Donjon that has had such a baptism of blood. 
It would seem as if the spirits of the multitudes there 
murdered were hovering around its turrets, waiting the 
arrival of that retributive justice which, though slowly, 
will surely come. 

C2 



58 MEN AND THINGS 

Versailles. Its cost. Workmen. 



CHAPTER X. 

Versailles. — The Palace. — Picture Gallery. — Chapel. — Theatre. — 
Banqueting Room. — Room of Louis XIV. — Room of Death. — Room 
where was signed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz. — The Bal- 
cony. — The Gardens. — Whence the Revenues. — Causes of the 
Revolution. — Bourbon Dynasty. — Moral Lessons of Versailles. 

I aM yet in Paris, and am telling what I saw. 

We started again for "Versailles, determined this time 
to reach it. "We walked to the " Chemin de fer," and 
after whirling us around the city, we were dropped in 
the heart of the town in half an hour. We met in the 
cars a British officer, retired on half-pay, who had been 
often there, who spoke the French as a native, and who 
kindly offered to take us around the place. So intel- 
ligent was he, and so thoroughly conversant with the 
town and the palace, that we saw all that was to be 
seen in the day, under the very best circumstances. 
The town itself is old and decaying, having once had 
a population of 100,000, and now reduced to less than 
30,000. But of the palace, what can I say ? 

It is a monument to the taste, the extravagance, to 
the pride and folly of the voluptuous Louis XIV. Some 
idea may be formed of its surpassing splendor, of its 
buildings, gardens, fountains, waterfalls, statuary, and 
paintings, when it is known that it cost about forty 
millions sterling, and that 30,000 soldiers, when they 
could be spared from the battle-field, were simultane- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 59 

Picture gallery. Chapel. Salle de l'Opera. 

ously employed on the works ! The palace is approach- 
ed by a very wide avenue, amid statuary, fountains, and 
soldiers. At eleven o'clock you gain admittance, and 
may wander amid its numberless apartments as you 
please. There are the great picture galleries, the finest 
in the world, where, in historical paintings, the great 
battles of kings, emperors, and republicans are placed 
before you. You wander over acres of canvas, glowing 
with the finest creations of the great masters, until op- 
pressed by the feelings of pleasure and wonder. There 
is the magnificent Chapel, with its gilded furniture, 
where royal sinners went to mass, and where royal 
courtesans went to confession, and where each could 
secure from a pliant and profligate priesthood pardon 
for the past and indulgence for the future. And there, 
before that altar, stood the beautiful Maria Antoinette, 
when she was wedded to Louis XVI., in 1769. And 
there is the Salle de V Opera, where the Bourbon court, 
sparkling in jewels and diamonds, and amid the blaze 
of ten thousand wax candles, crowded to attend theat- 
rical exhibitions. The stage was now vacant, and I 
sat down in the very seat where the beautiful queen 
of the Sixteenth Louis, whose tragic end made the world 
weep, often reclined, attracting all eyes and hearts to 
herself. And this is the very place whither the court 
fled for counsel on that fearful hour, when that furious 
mob reached the gates, which marched out from Paris 
to wreak their vengeance upon their royal oppressors. 
And there is the grand Banqueting Room, less than 
three hundred feet long, the finest in the world, where 
Louis displayed all the grandeur of royalty, and all the 
luxury of his times, and where were given the most 



60 MEN AND THINGS 

Rooms of note. The balcony. 

splendid fetes of Europe. But profound quiet had now 
succeeded to royal revelry. 

Every room in this magnificent royal abode has its 
history. There is the very chair and table of Louis 
XIV., and in the room where he planned most of his 
great wars and battles — where Louis XV. signed the 
decree expelling the Jesuits — where his bold and im- 
pudent mistress, Du Barri, who died by the guillotine, in 
the presence of his ministers snatched from his hands 
a package of letters and threw them into the fire ; and 
where Louis XVI. received the reply sent by Mirabeau, 
that the Assembly would not adjourn save at the point 
of his bayonets! 

And here is the room where Louis the Grreat died, 
bewailing his sins, and terrified, as well he might be, 
in view of the judgment ; and where Louis XV. died 
of small-pox, hated of all men, and with one watcher, 
an old woman, who announced his death by the put- 
ting out a candle in the window of his room! "What a 
just termination of a cruel and profligate life ! 

And here is the room where the infamous Jesuits, La 
Chaise and La Tellier, secured the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantz. Bloody men of a hated order ! G-od 
save us from their wiles ! 

And there is the balcony, on which I gazed with 
emotions of horror, where Maria Antoinette appeared at 
the call of the mob which filled the court below, yell- 
ing for vengeance. When she was married, a fearful 
thunder storm threw Versailles and the surrounding 
country into terror — it was regarded as an omen of her 
fearful end! And there is the room into which the 
mob had broken but a few moments after her escape, 



-AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 61 

Maria Antoinette. Orangery. Whence the revenues. 

and into whose bed they plunged a hundred daggers. 
Her murder is the bloodiest chapter in the bloody his- 
tory of the bloody revolution. As I gazed upon that 
balcony, I thought I could see her in loveliness, with 
her children on either side of her, facing the fury of the 
mob, which recoiled for a moment, with a murmur of 
admiration, at her presence ; and on my return to Paris, 
I imagined I could see her spirit hovering over that city, 
and crying, in view of the delay of justice, " How long! 
Lord, how long !" 

On leaving the palace for the gardens and parks 
which lie in the rear, you enter a scene of fairy en- 
chantment which can not be described. Groves, lawns, 
serpentine walks, lanes, waterfalls, parterres of flow- 
ers, fountains, and statuary, bewilder you with their 
number, opulence, beauty, and magnificence. I doubt 
whether of its kind there is a sight in the world to be 
compared to the view from the wall which surmounts 
the orangery in the garden of Versailles. 

But whence the immense revenues required to pro- 
duce, amid the wild forest, magnificence like this ? 
The very stables are palaces, and the horses of the Bour- 
bons were better cared for than the princes of other 
lands ! And whence the revenues that created and sus- 
tained such splendid and profuse royalty? They were 
wrung from the peasantry and citizens, who were re- 
garded by that bad race of kings as does a farmer his 
cattle, who are reared to yield their milk and beef for 
his profit ! The French people saw and felt how they 
were ground to sustain royal profligates and prosti- 
tutes, and they waited their time of vengeance ! The 
Revolution was onlv the effect of the outpouring of 



62 MEN AND THINGS 

Causes. The Bourbon race of kings. Lessons. 

the wrath of the nation, which had been accumulat- 
ing for ages under the pressure of the iron heel of des- 
potism. And when men and women seemed equally 
savage, it is to be remembered they were equally op- 
pressed. Some of the causes which led to the bloodiest 
revolution in the annals of time, you see in the fading 
magnificence of Versailles. 

And, were I a Frenchman, there is nothing which 
gave a hope of preventing it which I would not do, to 
prevent the return of the Bourbon dynasty. Taken as 
a whole, it was a cruel one ; with scarcely an exception, 
its kings were vain, oppressive, tyrannical, supersti- 
tious, lascivious, and cruel. Louis XIY. was the most 
regal of them all — the flower of the race. And yet no 
right mind can form an acquaintance with his inte- 
rior history without holding him in royal contempt. 
To see him scorning his wife — caressing his mistresses 
— sending his favorite of to-day into exile to-morrow — 
living daily in open debauchery — going to bed at night 
with a scapular and crucifix to keep off the devil — ris- 
ing and dressing amid a silly formalism, the very reci- 
tal of which fills you with disgust — sipping his coffee 
and wine — then going to prayers amid his attendants 
— then going to mass amid bishops and cardinals who 
were ever singing hosannas to the royal saint — shed- 
ding the blood of his people like water, and then dying 
amid the horrors which the recollection of his sins and 
profligacy could not fail to excite — 0, if this was the 
flower of the Bourbon race, may France be ever free 
from their rule, and the world from their example ! 

The moral lesson and instructions to be learned at 
Versailles are very many and very important. The race 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 63 

The glory departed. 

of monarchs that expended millions in its erection are 
now banished and detested. The halls, once crowded 
with the great and the noble of Europe, and resound- 
ing with their revelry, are now silent. And those oak- 
en floors, waxed and polished so brightly as almost to 
reflect your image, and upon which none but royal or 
noble feet were permitted to tread, are now daily trod 
by peasants and by strangers from other lands, who 
resort there to gaze upon the beauties of art, and the 
effects of the creative skill of man. Versailles is now 
only a national gallery ! " Sic transit gloria mundi." 



64 MEN AND THINGS 



Days of tyranny. Man of iron mask. 



CHAPTER XL 

Bastile. — Lettres de Cachet. — Man of Iron Mask. — Column of July. — 
Emeute of 1848. — Place de la Concord. — Obelisk of Luxor. — 
Guillotine. — January 21st and October 16th, 1793. — National As- 
sembly Hall. — Confusion. — Republicanism dishonored. 

Yet in Paris. 

The Place de la Bastile is one of great historic in- 
terest. It is an open space whence many streets ra- 
diate, and in the centre of which rises the famous Col- 
umn of July. Here once stood the Bastile, formerly a 
famous castle, in which state prisoners, arrested by 
lettres de cachet, were confined. By these " lettres" 
a man was taken from his family for any or no reason, 
and was carried none knew whither. They were usu- 
ally plunged into the cells of this building. If a man 
knew any thing whose revelation might be injurious to 
king, or minister, or mistress, here was his home ! 
What days of tyranny have passed over our world ! 
Here was confined " the man with iron mask," about 
whom so much has been written, and as to whom cu- 
riosity is yet on tip-toe. He was treated with the high- 
est distinction — was fed by the hand of the chief keep- 
er — was denied nothing he desired — but ever wore an 
iron mask, behind which no eye was permitted to look. 
He made, it is said, two efforts to reveal his confine- 
ment to the world. Once he threw a shirt out of the 
window on which he had written something. It was 
picked up by a priest, who took it to the keeper with- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 65 

The shirt. The plate. Column of July. Afire. 

out reading what was written. The priest, lest he 
should have read it, was put to death. Once he threw 
a silver plate out of the window upon which he had 
scratched something. It was found by a peasant and 
given hack to the keeper. " Have you read what is 
here written ?" said the keeper. " I can not read," was 
the reply. Having satisfied himself that the man could 
not read, the keeper dismissed him, saying, " You are 
very fortunate in not knowing how to read." Among 
many conjectures in reference to him, some intimate 
that he was a twin brother of Louis XIV., and that he 
was thus disposed of to prevent civil wars, as the twins 
might put in equal claims for the throne. If the true 
history of the Bastile could be written, tyranny, treach- 
ery, blood, and murder would mark its every page. 

It was captured by the people in July, 1789. In 
the following year it was demolished by order of the 
Assembly, and where it stood now stands the Column 
of July, 150 feet high, inscribed all over with the names 
of the martyrs of liberty, surmounted by a ball, on 
which stands a colossal gilt figure of the Genius of 
Liberty, standing on one foot, holding a torch in one 
hand and a broken chain in the other, with wings ex- 
panded ready to fly away. If it remains there yet, 
since the tricks of Louis Napoleon, it must be made of 
bronze or of brass. 

Here were the strongest barricades of the insurgents 
of June, 1848. It was here that the most fearful con- 
test of that emeute took place. The marks of it are 
visible on nearly all the surrounding houses. And it 
was here that Affre, archbishop of Paris, was killed, 
attempting to persuade the insurgents to desist. It 



66 MEN AND THINGS 

Place de la Concorde. Luxor. Guillotine. 

was on the pavement that surrounds the Monument 
that the throne of the Bourbons was consumed. 

Between the garden of the Tuileries and the Champs 
Elysees, and between the Madeleine and the Chamber 
of Deputies, lies the " Place de la Concorde." It is 
beautiful for situation. This was formerly the " Place 
de la Revolution." Here stands the magnificent mon- 
ument of ancient Egypt, the Obelisk of Luxor, which 
stood before the temple of Thebes fifteen centuries be- 
fore the birth of Christ, and which was raised to its pres- 
ent position in 1836, in the presence of Louis Philippe 
and his court, and such a crowd as Paris can give for 
such an occasion. And here are fountains, and statu- 
ary, and magnificence on every hand, to attract your 
gaze and call forth your admiration. But, as I walked 
over these enchanting grounds, recollections of other 
days came over me. Here was erected the revolution- 
ary guillotine, a machine invented in Italy, and im- 
ported into France by a humane physician, G-uillotin, 
whence its name, for the purpose of superseding the 
inhuman and atrocious methods of taking life. On the 
21st of January, 1793, the Bridge de la Concorde, the 
terraces of the Tuileries, the parapets on the border of 
the river, the tops of all the surrounding houses, the 
leafless trees in the Champs Elysees, and all these 
open grounds, were densely crowded with an excited 
people. A carriage drove up to the guillotine. A man 
of noble mien was led out of it. His hands were bound, 
and he was laid on the plank — the blade fell, and the 
head of Louis XYI. rolled in the dust ! An execution- 
er took it by the hair, and held it up to the view of the 
bloodthirsty crowd. Cruel Frenchmen jumped on the 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 67 

Death of Louis XVI. Of Maria Antoinette. Place of blood. 

scaffold, and, dipping the points of their swords in the 
royal blood flowing around them, and waving them 
toward heaven, cried out, " Vive la Republique !" 
France, France ! 

A few months have passed away, and on the 16th 
of October of the same year, another and similar 
crowd is collected in the same place. An open cart, 
used to carry the lowest criminals to death, slowly 
makes its way amid hissing crowds of men and women 
— the women the most coarse in their abuse — and stops 
before the guillotine. A female, with a white gown 
soiled and crumpled, with her ringlets fallen over her 
face and neck, descends from it. Her mouth sorrow- 
fully preserved the folds of royal pride, which no suffer- 
ing could tame, and which nothing could hide. She 
was bound to the plank, and the blade fell — and the 
head of Maria Antoinette, the Queen of France, the 
daughter of the Emperor Francis I. and of Maria The- 
resa, rolled away from its body ! The executioner 
took it by the hair, and went the round of the scaffold 
with it, raising it up in his hand, showing it to the 
people, who raised a long, loud cry of "Vive la Repub- 
lique !" And the most furious in Paris for the life of 
this queen, and those who showed the most frantic joy 
on her execution, were women. France, France ! 

And here I was treading the very ground on which 
the guillotine stood, where rivers of blood were shed, 
and where those scenes, which to this hour shock and 
sadden the civilized world, were enacted ! And now 
it is called Place de la Concorde, and is a place of 
enchanting beauty ! And yet it is steeped in blood ! 

From this bloody and beautiful spot, you cross the 



68 MEN AND THINGS 

Hall of the National Assembly. A visit to the Assembly. 

Seine by a magnificent bridge, built in part by stone 
from the demolished Bastile, and fronting you on the 
opposite bank stands the Hall of the National Assembly, 
with its Grecian portico and twelve Corinthian col- 
umns. "With an embassador's ticket I entered it from 
the rear, and was shown by officials to the gallery to 
which such tickets give admission. The Assembly 
was in full blast. Dupin sat as president, a large, full 
man, with semi-bald head, full face, and more English 
than French in appearance. Behind him sat two men, 
for what purpose I did not learn. They helped him to 
keep order ! A little stand, the tribune, like to a chor- 
ister's desk in a Scotch church, was before him. And 
on the seats, rising from the centre on all sides, amphi- 
theatre like, sat the members. They were numerous, 
and gentlemanly in appearance. Every speaker went 
to the tribune. A deputy ascended, buttoned to his 
chin, gloved, and brushed in true French style. He 
spoke calmly, and showed his gloves to perfection. The 
point in debate was about some duty on sugar. He 
uttered a sentence with force, and a cry was heard from 
a deputy, and another, and another ; and soon the house 
was in a perfect uproar. The orator folded his gloved 
hands on his bosom, and stood calm, as if made of 
marble, until the tumult subsided. He went on again, 
and soon the storm returned with fourfold violence. 
Members shouted, jumped to their feet, and brandished 
their arms in the air. I supposed there was to be a 
fight at once. Again the speaker stood quiet, and 
again the storm subsided. He resumed again, and the 
storm howled with still greater fury. Dupin hammered 
the desk, the men above him ringing a bell ; and such 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 69 

A storm. Cavaignac. Republicanism disgraced. 

a Babel, for fifteen or twenty minutes, I never saw be- 
fore or since. The man descended from the tribune, 
and the vote was taken ; and as they passed to and fro, 
voting, talking, and scolding, they seemed to me the 
most excitable set of human beings that ever was cre- 
ated. To this excitement there were some exceptions. 
The ministers of Louis Napoleon, who sat near the 
centre of the room, and on the lowest seats, moved not. 
Nor did Cavaignac, a man of middle stature, serious 
aspect, simple dress, who sat thoughtful among his 
brethren. 

If this was their usual way of legislating, I did not 
wonder when Louis Napoleon sent them home. One 
master is better than a million such, even when that 
master is "the nephew of his uncle. 1 ' Many heads 
sometimes make a hydra — of which there is some 
proof in American as well as French history. The 
French Assembly disgraced Republicanism in Europe. 
France has no religion and no fixed principles, and as 
long as the alternative is between socialism and despot- 
ism, no man who has any thing at stake will long 
hesitate as to his choice. My sense of shame, because 
of the scenes which occasionally disgrace our legisla- 
tive chambers at "Washington, was somewhat relieved 
by my visit to the National Assembly. If the Ameri- 
can people only knew the use which is made abroad 
of the vulgar and shameful conduct of some of our sen- 
ators and representatives in our halls of legislation, to 
prop up despotic institutions, and to bring republican- 
ism into contempt, they would prevent our brawlers 
from disgracing our country by voting them the privi- 
lege of staying at home. 



70 MEN AND THINGS 

Sabbath in Paris. Madeleine. "View from its portico. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Sabbath in Paris. — Madeleine. — Toupet. — The Interior. — Le Suisse. 
— Appearance and Duties. — A Funeral. — A young Couple at Mass. 
— Sights Seen. — High Mass. — Bad Influence of Popery on Paris. 

A Sabbath day spent in Paris, where there is no 
Sabbath set apart to the service of (rod by the people, 
is not easily forgotten by a Protestant ! And it is im- 
possible so to describe it as to make a person who nev- 
er witnessed it fully to comprehend it. Popery in 
Papal countries knows no Sabbath ; in Paris it has con- 
verted it into the harvest day of play-actors, shop-keep- 
ers, restaurants, buffoons, and mountebanks. 

The Madeleine is an exquisite building, Grecian in 
its form and proportions. It was designed by Bona- 
parte as a Temple of Grlory to the French arms, but is 
now a Papal Church. It is surrounded on all sides by 
fifty-two Corinthian columns, and is lighted entirely 
from above. It is both externally and internally gor- 
geously decorated by sculpture and paintings, and has 
cost nearly three millions of dollars. It is the most 
gorgeous and fashionable place of Papal worship in the 
city. From its southern portico a view of great beauty 
lies before you, as your eyes wander with delight over 
the Place de la Concorde, the bridges over the Seine, 
and the hall of the National Assembly. 

Desirous to see the practical workings of Popery, I 
visited this building many times. On entering it from 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 71 

Toupet. The interior. Le Suisse. 

the southern porch, you are soon arrested by a railing 
with a gate in the centre of it. At this gate stood the 
most dry, wrinkled, and insignificant looking person I 
ever saw in the form of a man, holding at the end of a 
short handle a brush wet with holy water. He was 
very old, very ugly, with a nose twice as long as nec- 
essary, very small, very stupid-looking, and with a cap 
on his head rising like a sugar-loaf. He is called, I 
believe, the " Toupet," from his holding out the brush. 
The faithful, as they enter, most daintily touch the 
brush with their gloved fingers, and cross themselves. 
This, of course, I declined ; and the little fellow's eyes 
seemed for a moment to assume an expression of fear 
that I might be an unbeliever in the sanctifying effi- 
cacy of touching his brush. If I were called upon to 
draw the picture of an incarnate male witch, I would 
select for my model the Toupet of the Madeleine. 

After passing the door guarded by the above relic of 
antiquity, you are surrounded by splendid paintings 
and statuary. The high altar is before you ; confession 
boxes and altars are on either hand ; there are no pews 
or seats ; and if you wish to sit or pray, you can have 
a split-bottom chair for a few sous, which are piled up 
on all sides. Your attention is soon arrested by the 
stately movements of another official, called "Le 
Suisse." He was in every respect a fine contrast to 
the Toupet. He was at least six feet two, with broad 
shoulders, and dressed as a field-marshal. He wore a 
chapeau militaire, side-arms, white tights, gloves, and 
carried an immense halbert in one hand, and an im- 
mense cane in the other. He seemed the most self- 
satisfied being I ever saw. He goes all over the house 



72 MEN AND THINGS 

His appearance. Marriage. Funeral. 

at pleasure, and stands by the altar, even when the 
priest is making (rod out of a wafer, without any ap- 
parent reverence. When all others are uncovered and 
on their knees, this official walks about as stately as 
ever, without even a nod of respect to host or priest. 
This fine-looking fellow, that I first supposed to be some 
famed general or commodore come hither to make a 
votive offering to Mary or Mars, is a mere servant, who 
leads the priests to the altars and leads them away ; 
who makes way for the monks or priests through the 
crowd when taking up collections ; who stands godfa- 
ther for all children baptized who have no fathers ; and 
who says "Amen" at funerals when there are none 
else to respond. I never before saw so big a man en- 
gaged in such small business. And yet he threw all 
the priests in the shade, attracting to himself the at- 
tention of all strangers. If I had the ear of the priests, 
I would advise them to dismiss that stately " Suisse" if 
they wish strangers to notice themselves or their panto- 
mime. I would know him if I met him in the moon, 
while the priests, like sheep or geese, seemed all alike. 
I went to the Madeleine several times during the week. 
I witnessed a marriage at one of its altars, and a fu- 
neral at another. I was there when the poor and when 
the fashionable go to mass. And the more frequently 
I went, the more I was impressed with the utter heart- 
lessness of Popery. A coffin made of very disjointed 
boards, kept together by ropes, was brought in and laid 
before an altar. After some time the Suisse came 
clattering along with the priest behind him. A cere- 
mony was mumbled hurriedly over, of which I could 
not hear a word but the response of the knight of the 
halbert, and then the poor people took away their dsad ! 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 73 

Mass and musk. Frivolous alternation. The streets. 

A spruce young couple came to mass, smelling strongly 
of musk, as I can testify. The young lady knelt on 
the bottom of a chair, hid her face for a few moments, 
and then, yet kneeling, commenced a talk with her 
friend, who stood, hat and cane in hand, by the chair. 
And thus they spent some twenty minutes — she alter- 
nately praying, talking, and laughing, and the man, 
when she was praying, looking with an opera-glass 
upon the persons and things around him. And this is 
the manner of the fashionable Parisians at mass. It 
is a frivolous alternation of giggle and praying, of pray- 
ing and giggle, which proves beyond all question the 
utter absence of the mind and heart from the service. 

On Sabbath morning the sun rose warm, and with- 
out a cloud, over the city of Paris. I felt I was from 
home, and in a Papal country. After breakfast, and 
worship with a few friends in an upper room, we went 
to the Madeleine to witness high mass. As we went 
along the Rue Rivoli, masons were at work on the 
streets and public buildings, supervised by an officer in 
livery ; shops were every where open, and more at- 
tractively decorated than usual ; soldiers were march- 
ing and counter-marching along the streets, and across 
the Place de la Concorde, and in nothing did the town 
differ from the other days in the week, save in the 
gayer dress of the people, the greater appearance of 
finery in the shops, the greater number of purchasers, 
the increased number of soldiers, and the more densely 
crowded state of all the fashionable promenades. We 
made our way to the church. 

As we approached its splendid southern portico, peo- 
ple were coming out in considerable numbers, while 

D 



74 MEN AND THINGS 

Mass. A farce. Paris made by Popery. 

others were entering. We entered, passed the Toupet, 
whose skin looked as if it was borrowed from a mum- 
my, and hired chairs. Mass soon opened, and the 
drama was acted very well. The bishop and priests 
were in full attire ; twice, followed by priests shaking 
their boxes, did the stately Suisse parade the entire 
church, asking alms from the people. And amid the 
noise of his cane, halbert, and heels upon a marble 
floor ; of the changing of money to pay for the chairs 
occupied by the people ; of the jingling of their boxes 
by the priests, to give notice of their approach ; of the 
ringing of bells from the altar ; of the deep tones of the 
noble organ, which swelled one after another through 
the ample building ; of the talking of the young, and 
of the whispering of strangers, of whom there seemed 
to be many, the reader may judge of the worship we 
were enabled to render to Him who requires his crea- 
tures to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Candles, 
statuary, painting, priests dressed in the most gorgeous 
style of man-millinery, were there in profusion ; but 
there were no religious emotions, no worship of Grod, 
no religious instruction. And we retired from the gor- 
geous scene, feeling that, if that were the worship 
which the High and Lofty One required from intelli- 
gent creatures, God and religion were both a farce. 
No wonder that a religion, of which this is the highest 
style, does so little to instruct the people, or to render 
Paris a moral city. The judgment day will reveal 
how much of the blood that has so often deluged this 
city — how much of its crimes and dissoluteness — how 
much of the influence for evil which it exerts on Eu- 
rope and on the world, will be found on the skirts, and 
required at the hands of Popery and its priests. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 75 

Pleasant meeting. Wesleyan Chapel. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A pleasant Meeting in the Madeleine. — Wesleyan Chapel. — The Ser- 
vice. — " Clothes." — Minister for Paris. — Prayer-meeting. — Sabbath 
Evening Walk. — Sights seen. — Reasons for French Character. — 
The Riddle solved. — A Look at St. Germain. — A Prayer. 

I am yet describing a Sabbath in Paris. 

When the mummery of high mass in the Madeleine 
was drawing to a close — when the Suisse, with mili- 
tary tread and martial air, commenced, for the second 
time, making a pathway for the priests who followed, 
rattling their boxes, and asking for money, we rose to 
depart. We gave once, and did not care to pay again, 
even for such magnificent nonsense. On turning round 
we were most happy to meet an honorable judge and 
honored Christian from Pennsylvania, with his reverend 
son — a clergyman from Boston, and a gentleman from 
Providence. Although comparatively strangers, we 
soon felt that we were friends. Were it not for this 
casual meeting, I might not have seen Rome. How 
sweet to meet Christian friends and fellow-citizens in 
a foreign land ! 

At twelve, we went together to the Wesleyan Chapel 
in the Rue Madeleine, and almost under the shadow 
of the splendid church which we had just left. We 
entered by a narrow alley. The room is small, but it 
was well filled, and mostly with men. Soon a man of 
good appearance, of comparative youth, and of serious 
aspect, entered the pulpit, and without robes. His ac- 



76 MEN AND THINGS 

Episcopal service. Clothes. A sermon. 

cent was strongly English. The Episcopal service was 
read by him from the beginning to the end, just as I had 
heard it in St. James's, "Westminster, with the prayers 
" for our beloved Queen Victoria, her royal consort 
Prince Albert," the royal children and all. The whole 
thing struck me strangely. Why these prayers in 
France for England's royal family ? Why this slavish 
use of the prayer-book by a Methodist clergyman in 
Paris ? And never did I see so much the need of robes 
on the minister, and responses from the people, to make 
the formulary of the prayer-book tolerable. When 
well read, and with hearty responses, I have been edi- 
fied by it ; but on this occasion it was oppressive. The 
constant repetition of the same forms, as Carlyle would 
say, " needs clothes" to render them tolerable. With- 
out gowns, responses, and frequent down-sittings and 
up-risings, the prayer-book would be soon laid aside. 
So I judged from the effect of its naked and unvaried 
perusal upon myself on this occasion. But " clothes" 
are essential to the continuance of many other things 
as well as the Prayer-book. 

The minister preached from the thirtieth chapter of 
Isaiah, and the thirty-third verse, a sermon on the doc- 
trine of future punishment. It struck me as a most in- 
appropriate and feeble effort. The room was filled with 
strangers from Britain and America, and who went 
there from the husks of Popery to be fed with the Gos- 
pel. Many, I know, were disappointed. And yet, in- 
appropriate and feeble as was the effort, and destitute as 
was the preacher of emotion, the service was incompara- 
bly better than the hocus pocus, in all its gorgeous dra- 
pery, which we had just witnessed in the Madeleine. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 77 

Preacher at Paris. Prayer-meeting. A walk. 

The importance of a first-rate American preacher of 
the Gospel in Paris can not he too highly estimated. 
Such is now the facility of transatlantic travel, that 
the number of those must he constantly on the increase 
who will seek their summer recreations in Europe. 
And a noble preacher, of fervent heart and piety, meet- 
ing such in Paris, would be to them as a stream in the 
desert, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 
"Why is not such a minister of God there ? 

Before we left the "Wesleyan Chapel, we projected a 
service of our own ; and at four o'clock we met in the 
Hotel Windsor, in a private room, for reading the Scrip- 
tures and for prayer. The number which met in the 
Madeleine was increased by the addition of the Rev. 
Dr. C. and his three fine boys. A more pleasant meet- 
ing I never attended. There we were in a foreign land, 
surrounded by people of a strange tongue, some of us 
away from our people, and all of us from our families 
and homes, and in the midst of a people proverbially 
estranged from God. And the word of the Lord was 
sweet to our taste ; and we prayed, weeping, for our 
people, our families, our home. That meeting for 
prayer in Paris on the Sabbath afternoon will not be 
soon forgotten by any that were there ! 

As the light of the Sabbath's sun commenced waning 
in the sky, and when the mild, balmy air of evening 
had succeeded to the rather oppressive heat of the day, 
we went forth to see for ourselves the way in which 
the Sabbath evening is kept in Paris. "We went from 
the palace of the Tuileries, through its garden, and the 
Place de la Concorde, and the Champs Elysees. Thence 
we turned into the Boulevards, and through the Rue 



78 MEN AND THINGS 

Sights. No Sabbath. The Sabbath a type. 

Richelieu home. And such sights I never beheld ! It 
would seem as if all Paris had turned into the streets. 
Here were soldiers marching in platoons ; there was 
ballad-singing under a canopy, surrounded by people 
sitting on benches and sipping wines and ices. Here 
were elegantly dressed girls dancing ; and there was a 
crowd collected around gamboling monkeys. Here was 
a man selling trinkets at auction, and there were gam- 
bling tables. Here were a few women going to church, 
and there were crowds of men and women rushing to 
the theatre and opera. The Boulevards were densely 
crowded ; the shops were all open — their windows sur- 
rounded by admiring spectators ; and at short intervals 
the sidewalks were covered with tables, around which 
men and women sat, in the open air, regaling them- 
selves with wines and confectionery. Occasionally you 
would come to a stand in the Champs Ely sees where 
men were playing all kinds of mountebank tricks, sur- 
rounded by hundreds of admiring spectators. The res- 
taurants seemed crowded by men, women, and children. 
Not a vestige of evidence to remind you of the Sabbath 
was any place apparent. The whole route taken through 
the oity wore the appearance of a Fourth of July in 
New York, when booths were allowed around the Park. 
The proof was positive that Paris at least has no religion. 
And it is very remarkable to what an extent the man- 
ner in which the Sabbath is kept is a type of the moral 
character of a people, and of a man. A Parisian Sab- 
bath is as certain an index to the character of the 
French, as is a Sabbath in Edinburgh to the charac- 
ter of the Scotch. 

After visiting its churches during the day, and tak- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 79 

The Church's work. Frivolity. A riddle. 

ing the walk above described on Sabbath evening, you 
no longer wonder at the character which Paris has in 
all the earth. The wealth of the Church is spent in 
fostering the arts ; the labors of the clergy are expend- 
ed in vain ceremonies ; there is no instruction from the 
pulpit;, and all the efforts of the priests are directed, 
not to enlighten the people in the knowledge of (rod, 
not to purify the heart, but to gratify the senses. A 
church is more or less attractive according to its wealth, 
its pictures, its statuary, or its relics in the way of old 
bones from the catacombs of Rome or Naples. And 
people resort to them, not to worship (rod, but in ac- 
cordance to custom, or as they would resort to an 
opera or to an exhibition of the arts. The frivolous 
character of the religion of France is obvious even amid 
their most solemn ceremonials ; for I have seen the 
women on their knees during the elevation of the host, 
praying, laughing, talking ; now turning their eyes on 
the ground ; now raising them most piously on a pic- 
ture ; and now turning them laughingly on their lov- 
ers or friends, without ever changing their kneeling 
position ! 

French character is a riddle. You meet the French 
in the garden of the Tuileries, gay, joyous, with hearts 
light as down, and in the Champs Ely sees, as full of fun, 
frolic, and dance as you can conceive. So polite are 
they, that in cases where an Englishman would pass 
on without uttering a word, they will turn upon you 
with hat off, bowing most reverently, and asking a 
thousand pardons. You would not, you could not, im- 
pute to them any thing but a joyous, polite, and re- 
fined character ; and yet to-morrow those very persons, 



80 MEN AND THINGS 

What a change ! Why ? St. Bartholomew. 

men and women, may be furies, covered with scars, 
ragged, half naked, caring neither for Grod or man, 
carrying a rapier in one hand and a tri-colored flag 
in the other, and wading ankle deep in blood, to grat- 
ify their thirst for more. They will raise barri- 
cades — scale walls — face cannon — demolish prisons — 
burn thrones, churches, or palaces — guillotine kings 
and queens, and shed their own blood like water, to 
indulge the excitement of the hour. And why thus ? 
Why so refined, polite, sympathizing one day, and so 
demoniacal the next ? The French are morally unedu- 
cated. Sentiment, passion, the outward, are every 
thing with them. They are versatile, inflammable, 
and atheistic in the undertone of their opinions. Pope- 
ry is an overcoat to put off or on as suits the hour. 
And when their passions are up, there is no great prin- 
ciple to guide them ; there is nothing in time or eter- 
nity to fear ; and they rush on like a raging tornado, 
blind as the winds. "With the religious training and 
principles of Scotland, the French would be the noblest 
people on the globe. The grand want of France is re- 
ligion, and this is a want which Popery can never 
supply. 

On my Sabbath evening stroll through Paris, I 
stood for a few minutes before the church St. Grermain 
l'Auxerrois. As I gazed upon its belfry, my thoughts 
recurred to that dreadful period, the 23d of August, 
1572, when its bell gave the signal for the awful mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew, and tolled the death-knell 
of the Protestants of France through the whole night, 
while the hired assassins of court, bishops, and priests 
were butchering Coligny and his fellow- Protestants ! 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 81 

Blood crying to heaven. 

With a shudder of horror, I turned away from the sight 
and went home. Popery, the blood of the millions 
thou hast slain is pleading against thee before the 
throne of eternal justice ! False in principle, fanatical 
in spirit, and ferocious in heart, may the Lord soon 
destroy thee with the brightness of his rising ! 
D2 



82 MEN AND THINGS 

A diligence. Swung off and on. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

£xit from Paris. — A Diligence. — Beaune. — Chalons. — Abelard and 
Heloise. — Face of the Country. — French Villages. — The Peasan- 
try. — The Saone. — Ladies' Dress. — Old Habits retained. — Ameri- 
can Peculiarity. — A Digression. 

Having spent what time we had to spare in Paris, 
we started for Italy by the way of Lyons and Marseilles. 
"We were packed into a diligence at the Messageries 
Grenerales, Rue St. Honore. This is a traveling con- 
cern which can scarcely he described to a person that 
has not seen it. It contains four kinds of places — the 
coupe in front, the best and dearest ; the interieur, or 
middle apartment ; the rotonde, or hinder ; and the 
banquette, on the top of the vehicle. The seats are 
all numbered, and your receipt informs the conducteur 
where to place you. Thus all scrambling for seats is 
prevented. It will hold fifteen or twenty persons. 
There is any amount of baggage on the top. It is a 
far more comfortable conveyance than any would take 
it to be at first sight. In one of these coaches we were 
driven out of the city to the railway depot, when it 
was swung bodily from the wheels by a crane, and 
placed on the railway car, all retaining their seats. We 
were yoked to the iron steam-horse, and away we went 
through a level country, the beautiful woods and village 
of Fontainebleau, to Tonnerre, then the terminus of 
the "chemin de fer." There we were again swung on 
to the wheels of a coach, and yoked to two tier of horses, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 83 

Beaune. Its history. Chalons. 

three abreast ; we trundled along at the rate of six or 
seven miles an hour, day and night, to Beaune. "We 
were dropped a little after daylight at, I presume, the 
best hotel in the town ; but every thing looked so un- 
cared-for that I called for eggs. If fresh, I knew they 
would be clean. After as much of breakfast as sur- 
rounding circumstances would permit us to take, we 
spent a few hours in viewing the old town. Here is 
the noble hospital of Nicholas Rollin, once chancellor 
to the Duke of Burgundy ; here, also, is a college, 
which seemed neglected ; here are strong ramparts, 
planted with trees, which form a magnificent prome- 
nade ; but the chief celebrity of the town is owing to 
its being the centre of trade in the wine to which it 
gives its name, which is a species of the Burgundy. 
Julien says that the wines of Beaune have the justly 
acquired reputation of being "le plus francs de gout 
de toute la Bourgogne." 

By railway we proceeded from Beaune to Chalons, 
on the Saone, which we reached in a short time. This 
was for many years the capital of the ancient kingdom 
of Burgundy, and is yet a place of considerable busi- 
ness. The streets seemed dirty, and the place looked 
as if it might be unhealthy. It is low, marshy, and 
the country very level. It was here the famous Abe- 
lard died in 1142, whese varied and romantic history 
is yet a subject of interest to the world. His intrigues 
with Heloise show to what an extent passion and re- 
ligion, faith and falsehood, love and monkery, were 
mixed and mingled in the lives of the ecclesiastics of 
the Middle Ages. Heloise begged his body after his 
death, and had it buried in her own monastery, with 



84 MEN AND THINGS 

Abelard and Heloise. Appearance of the country. 

the view of reposing in death by his side. In 1800 
the ashes of both of them were removed to the Museum 
of French monuments at Paris, and the exquisite mon- 
ument in Pere la Chaise is erected to both of them, as 
the martyrs of love ! At Chalons we took a steamer 
down the Saone to Lyons. 

In this ride from north to south we had a fine op- 
portunity of seeing the country portions of France. In 
the main, the face of the country is very level, and is 
well cultivated. The people live in villages, and neither 
horses nor cattle are seen dispersed over the country, as 
in Britain or with us. If now and then you see a cow 
feeding by the wayside, it has always an attendant to 
keep it within bounds. There are no fences to be seen 
any where ; and lines of trees, running for miles with- 
out deviating from a straight line, constantly present 
themselves, until the eye is weary of seeing them. 
Where nothing richer can grow, the vine is sure to be 
planted. The hills are all vine-clad, and are often 
prettily terraced for its cultivation. The vines are 
planted about as far apart as are our hills of corn : the 
old stump seemed only a foot or two high, and the 
branches from the stump are only permitted to grow 
four or five feet long. Thus the strength of the tree is 
thrown into the fruit, instead of being permitted to ex- 
pend itself in the production of long branches and many 
leaves. Vineyards thus cultivated were every where 
to be seen. They ran up the sides of the most steep 
acclivities, and capped the summit of the highest hills. 
Because they can stick a vine any where, the entire 
surface of the country is producing something. 

The villages through which we passed present a very 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 85 

Villages. The peasantry. Fine sail. 

strong contrast to our American villages. The streets 
are so narrow as often to make it impossible for two 
carriages to pass one another. The houses are built 
directly on the street, without door-yard or pavement 
in front. Sometimes the horses are eating on the first 
floor, while you are dining or supping on the second. 
And the air of neatness, cleanliness, comfort, which 
is worn by our best American villages, is generally ab- 
sent from those of France. 

The peasantry also seemed uncultivated, and in a 
low state of civilization. Women were every where 
working in the fields, and were doing all kinds of 
manual labor. And all along a canal, on the borders 
of which we traveled many miles, men were drawing 
the boats. The women seemed to be doing the work 
of men, and men the work of horses. In countries 
which support large standing armies, the men are 
needed for arms, for the deadly breach, as food for the 
cannon ; hence the cultivation of the country must, 
of necessity, devolve upon women, if it is done at all. 
And, as we shall narrate by-and-by, we have seen men 
directing gangs of women in the field, as it is said 
drivers superintend gangs of negroes in some of our 
Southern plantations. "When there, France was a re- 
public, and yet soldiers were met every where. The 
people willed a republic, and legions of armed men 
were needed to induce the people to respect it ! What 
a riddle are the French people ! 

The sail down the Saone to Lyons was very fine. 
The steamers on these rivers are very narrow and very 
long, and with very little to interrupt a promenade 
from stem to stern. We stopped at many places to 



86 MEN AND THINGS 

Singular dress. Attachments to forms. 

give out and take in passengers, which was done 
adroitly and rapidly. At one place we took on board 
several females with head-dresses which excited the 
wonder of those of us who were travelers and strangers. 
Their bonnets I then likened to a large circular mat 
with a thimble placed on the centre of it. The thim- 
ble was placed over the head, and the leaf was tied on 
by very wide and gorgeous ribbons. Their nether gar- 
ments were very short, and their shoes quite in the mas- 
culine order. I asked the captain who these strange- 
looking persons were, who told me that they were very 
respectable ladies of the place, wearing the dress pecul- 
iar to that locality. 

There is nothing which strikes an American traveler 
in Europe more strongly than the attachment to old 
habits, fashions, and forms every where visible. The 
guides through the Tower of London are dressed as 
harlequins. The Lord Chancellor of England is buried 
in an enormous wig, with sleeves. The advocates plead- 
ing in court must wear their gown and wig, Welch- 
women wear hats like men. The people in many of 
the departments of France are distinguished by their 
dresses. They will tell you in Rome to what village 
the people from the country belong by the fashion of 
their garments. Mountains, and rivers, and often 
imaginary lines divide kingdoms, nations, and tongues. 
On one side of a river you find one set of customs ; on 
the other, a very different set. On one side of a mount- 
ain you hear the Italian ; on the other, the German, 
or the French, or a patois peculiar to the people. The 
British Channel is some twenty miles wide, and how 
different the people, the language, the religion on either 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 87 

Speedy changes. Evil distinctions. Digression. 

side of it. In a few hours you may fly from Liverpool 
to "Wales and to the Isle of Man, and these hours 
bring you among a people who speak the English, the 
Welsh, the Manx languages. This all seems singular 
to us, who can travel from east to west, and from north 
to south, over a country thousands of miles in extent, 
and find among all our people the same language, 
customs, and habits. These distinctions tend to keep 
up old jealousies, to foster prejudices, to retain the di- 
viding lines of races and religions, and thus to obstruct 
the march of civilization and Christianity. They form 
strings upon which kings, princes, and priests can play 
so as to suit their own purposes. The people of Europe 
need to be shaken together, and to be kept together 
long enough, as it were in some chemical retort, in 
which they would lose their peculiarities, and from 
which they would come forth one people. The great 
peculiarity of our country is that we take all the vary- 
ing people from all the varying nations of Europe, and 
cast them into our mill, and they come out in the grist, 
speaking our language, Americans and Protestants. 

What a digression, caused by those curiously dressed 
women seen on our way from Chalons to Lyons ! 



88 MEN AND THINGS 



Down the Saone. Lyons. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Saone. — Lyons : its Appearance — its History. — Peter de Vaud. 
— Revolutionary Scenes. — Precy. — Couthon. — Collot d'Herbois. — 
Horrid Murders by Jacobins. — Festoons of Human Limbs. — Anec- 
dote of Dr. Nesbit. — Fouche. — Death an eternal Sleep. — The Mob, 
the most fearful of all Governments. 

The sail down the Saone from Chalons is a very- 
pleasant one. The hanks of the river have a quiet 
heauty ; towns are frequent ; magnificent bridges fre- 
quently span its current ; you catch occasional views 
of the Alps ; and, as you approach Lyons, its waters are 
pressed into a narrow channel, rocks rise on either 
hand, you shoot through a narrow gorge, pass under 
the hills of Fauvieres and Sainte Foi, and are soon 
landed upon the quays of the "City of Silks." The 
approach to it by the Saone is very fine — " magnifi- 
cent," was the exclamation of one of our party. We 
put up at the Hotel l'Univers, where we care not to 
lodge again until the fare is a little more in keeping 
with the charges. They sustain to each other an in- 
verse ratio. 

This greatest silk factory of the world, and the sec- 
ond city of France, is on the tongue of land formed by 
the junction of the Saone and the Rhone, and on the 
precise spot where soil, fuel, climate, water, and facility 
of communication furnish the elements of a great city. 
Both rivers are spanned by bridges of the most solid 
masonry. The city is crowded — dirty ; and its narrow 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 89 

Its history. De Vaud. Terrorists. 

streets, paved with small stones, are often very offensive. 
The rivers and mountains hem in the population ; and 
the streets, in some, places, rise so perpendicularly 
against the hills as to seem like ladders. There are 
some fine squares, one of which, Bellecour, with a 
statue of Louis XIV., is said to be one of the grandest 
in Europe. It did not so impress us. 

It was not the noble warehouses that line the rivers, 
nor its world-famed factories, but its histories, that 
deeply interested me. Lyons was the Lugdunum of 
the Romans, and was the scene of the great labors of 
the Christian Irenaeus. It was the scene of a fearful 
persecution against the Christians under Marcus Aure- 
lius, who were here murdered until men became weary 
of bloodshed. Their murdered bodies were burned, 
and their ashes cast into the rivers, that there might be 
nothing of them left to disgrace the world ! This was 
the residence of Peter de Vaud, that eminent confessor 
of the Middle Ages, who gave his name to the "Walden- 
sian Christians, who from the days of the apostles 
have kept the pure light of truth burning in the valleys 
of the Alps. This was a scene of vast suffering during 
the religious wars of the sixteenth century, when, in 
the murder and banishment of the Huguenots, France 
cast from her bosom the purifying salt. Since then, 
morally, it has been a festering mass of corruption. 
But the revolutionary scenes which were here enacted 
reached the very sublime of cruelty. 

The citizens, in self-preservation, arrayed themselves 
in opposition to the Terrorists of Paris — Robespierre, 
Danton, and Marat. Under the command of Precy, 
they made a most determined resistance, and endured 



90 MEN AND THINGS 



D'Herbnis. Jacobins. Blood 

an awful siege. After the most heroic acts and endur- 
ance, Precy fled, and Couthon entered the city at the 
head of the army of the Convention. And soon there 
commenced a scene of cold, ruthless carnage, from 
which the mind and heart shrink with horror. Collot 
d'Herbois, a low actor who was hissed from the stage, 
and whose vanity was turned into ferocity by the in- 
sult — Fouche, who gave up the pursuit of the priest- 
hood for turmoil and intrigue — and Dorfeuille, became 
the leaders of the Jacobins. Everybody, man, woman, 
and child, suspected of royal leanings, or of sympathy 
with Precy, was placed on the proscribed list. The 
city was given up to demolition. Prisons were crowd- 
ed. A permanent scaffold was erected in front of the 
town hall, where executions were continued for ninety 
days without interruption. Sand was scattered on the 
streams of human blood every evening, which, by the 
constant trampling of the people, thirsting to see their 
fellow-citizens die, became a red and fetid mud, which 
soon covered the square and reeked in the air ! When 
this could not be longer endured, the scaffold was placed 
over a sewer, into which the streaming blood ran, and 
was carried into the Rhone. And when the executions 
increased, like the pulsations of an inflamed body, the 
scaffold was placed in the centre of the Pont Morand, 
over the river. The flowing blood was swept into the 
river, and the headless bodies and bodiless heads were 
cast over the parapets of the bridge into the " arrowy 
Rhone !" The very washerwomen had to move up the 
stream to prevent their clothes from being stained. 
The victims were generally the young men of the city 
and surrounding country, whose age was their crime. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 91 

Horrid festoons. A scourge. Anecdote. 

But even this wholesale butchery was not sufficiently 
rapid to gratify the thirst of the Jacobins for the blood 
of "the aristocrats." They were tied together in com- 
panies, led across the bridge into the low lands on the 
opposite banks of the Rhone, placed in a straight line, 
and then. mowed down by cannon ! The mangled bod- 
ies of men were hung upon the trees which surround 
the square Bellecour, and festoons of limbs were ex- 
tended from tree to tree all around, for the purpose of 
teaching the people the power and the vengeance of 
the Convention, of which Robespierre was now the 
head. 

And there I was, walking over the square once cov- 
ered with that red and fetid mud, and under the trees 
once festooned with human limbs, and standing on 
the bridge where the guillotine did such fearful execu- 
tion, and looking over upon the low plain of the Brot- 
teaux, where those scenes of horror were enacted — men 
placed in rows before the devouring cannon ! It was 
here the anger of the Revolution rose up to the power 
of a divine scourge. 

After a recital like this, no person will find fault with 
the following anecdote told of Dr. Nesbit, as famous for 
his keen and ready wit as for his profound scholarship. 
He was at a dinner-party in Philadelphia during the 
progress of the French Revolution, when the recently 
received news from Europe was the engrossing topic 
of conversation. Several politicians of the Jefferson 
school were there, strong in their sympathies with 
French Republicanism. The Doctor was silent for some 
time. On being asked his opinion, he gave it thus : 
" I had," said he, in his broad Scotch accent, " a queer 



92 MEN AND THINGS 

Hell emptied. Fouchfi. Defenses of the right. 

dream last night. I dreamed I died, and went to hell. 
I went to the door and knocked, but nobody came to 
open it. I knocked again and again, but nobody 
came. After knocking a good while, the old de'il him- 
self came to the door and asked what I wanted. I 
told him I wanted to enter hell. Gro your way, said 
the old fellow, slamming the door in my face, I can 
not let you in ; I have nobody to take care of you, for 
all the other de'ils are gone to help carry on the French 
Revolution." 

Surely it would seem as if such men as D'Herbois, 
Fouche, Dorfe"uille,Robespierre, Danton,Chalier,Dubois- 
Crance, so utterly destitute of all feelings of humanity, so 
utterly demoniacal in disposition, so cool in their cruel- 
ties, must have been natives of Pandemonium. Impiety 
with them was patriotism ; cruelty was love of liberty ; 
their love for the poor they showed by the murder of 
the rich, and proclaimed that the French people recog- 
nized no law or authority but those of their sovereignty 
and omnipotence ! It was the human butcher Fouche, 
according to Lamartine, who ordered a figure of Sleep 
to be placed over the gates of the cemeteries, with this 
inscription : " Death is an eternal sleep." Surely, in 
his case, the desire must have been the father of the 
thought, for who would not prefer annihilation to a 
resurrection with the blood of murdered thousands 
clamoring for vengeance, and to the scrutiny of an un- 
erring and omnipotent Judge, who will by no means 
clear the guilty ! 

What scenes of fearful violence have been perpe- 
trated on our globe ! There is no safety for the right, 
the true, the good, but in the maintenance of law and 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 93 

The mob, worse than plagues. 

order. If these can be maintained with free institu- 
tions, well ; if not, let them he maintained with what- 
ever institutions. A had king is a had thing ; hut a 
ruthless moh, with no reason hut passion ; yielding to 
the advice of the most violent ; hent only to gratify its 
prejudices ; loud as the thunder and blind as the tor- 
nado — this is the worst thing earth knows. The 
plagues of the Middle Ages were angels' visits in com- 
parison with it. 



94 MEN AND THINGS 

Lyons. Much to fear. Steamers. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Lyons. — Down the Rhine : its Scenery. — Nuns : their Appearance. — 
An Inference. — A Contrast. — A startling Incident. — Avignon. — 
Split in the Popedom : its Causes. — The Popes of Avignon : their 
Palace. — The butcher Jourdan. — The Cathedral. — The Tarpsean 
Rock. — The Inquisition. — The Museum. — Old Mortality. — A Con- 
versation with Mine Host. — Petrarch and Laura. 

"We left Lyons without any regrets for Avignon. 
The city, as you depart from it, looks, as when approach- 
ing it, very fine. Many houses appeared as if they 
were hung up on the sides of the hills. We thought 
of the crimsoned waters that once filled the channel, 
and of the mutilated hodies floating on the waves, lodg- 
ing on the sand-hanks, caught in the shrubhery, and 
putrefying in the sun ! But that fearful reign of terror 
was ended, may it not he hoped, never to return? But 
who knows what to hope or fear from France ? Wield- 
ing great power, with a fickle, imaginative, impulsive, 
irreligious, unprincipled people, there is much to hope, 
there is more to fear. 

The steamers on the lower Rhone are very long and 
very narrow. In this thing they are strikingly pecul- 
iar. They draw hut little water ; their accommoda- 
tions are very poor. The river is rapid, hut shallow. 
The country is broken into mountains and sharp rocks ; 
and here and there you catch a view of snowy mount- 
ain peaks which hide their heads in the clouds. On 
either bank there is a rapid succession of villages, which 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 95 

Ruina. Nuns. Why nuns ? 

seem very dirty and uncomfortable, and some very pic- 
turesque residences. On the summit of the hills, and 
cut into the solid rocks, are seen ruins of castles and 
fortresses erected by the barons and feudal lords of the 
Middle Ages, and old walls and foundations which date 
back to. the days of Julius Csesar, to whom this river 
was very familiar. It would seem impossible to build 
any structure upon points where some of these huge 
ruins are tottering. Some panoramic views occasion- 
ally present themselves of surpassing beauty. The 
noble bridges form quite an item in the ever-changing 
scenery, which astonish an American by their frequen- 
cy, strength, dimensions, and tastefulness. 

We had as fellow-passengers several nuns. To those 
of us from America, they were objects of some curios- 
ity. The prima donna wore a large crucifix, and 
moved with an air of authority. She was large, coarse 
in features, clumsy in her walk, and looked neither 
like Lent nor Grood Friday. To my certain knowledge, 
on the day of our travel she abstained not from meat 
or wine. Her companions were like her. All the pic- 
tures I have seen of nuns represent them as very pretty, 
but all the nuns I have ever seen were the reverse ; and 
my inference is, that voluntary nuns are those whose 
convictions are deepened by every look they take in the 
mirror, that they have but few hopes of matrimony. 
They chatted a good deal together ; they were by no 
means so rapt in meditations on the Virgin as not to 
observe every thing passing around them. They look- 
ed at me as if they suspected heresy. At a certain 
hour in the afternoon I found them together reading a 
missal, and by their side a fine Frenchwoman, of deli- 



96 MEN AND THINGS 

Representatives. A lost man. Avignon. 

oately chiseled form and fine face, reading a New Tes- 
tament. I could not help regarding them as repre- 
sentatives of the two systems of Protestantism and 
Popery. 

There are boats anchored on the Rhone and fastened 
to the banks, which rise and fall with the water, for 
the debarking and embarking of passengers. As we 
were approaching one of them, a wild scream rose from 
its deck. A Frenchman who had enlisted for Africa, 
and who, with knapsack on his back, was waiting to 
come on board, fell into the stream. It was there 
deep and very rapid. I saw him for a minute or two, 
with head above the current, but he sank to rise no 
more ! The boat remained a few minutes longer on 
account of the accident, and then we were away as if 
nothing had happened ! His traveling companion came 
on board, who showed his feelings of sorrow by soon 
falling asleep. 0, how little are men impressed by 
the passage of an immortal soul into eternity ! 

We left Lyons at six in the morning, and at a lit- 
tle after five in the afternoon, we were landed at Avig- 
non, under the shadow of the towering cliff which over- 
hangs the Rhone. We went to the Hotel l'Europe, 
one of the most neat, pleasant, and agreeable houses 
we met in all our travels. 

The history of Avignon gives it an interest it could 
not otherwise possess. Its streets are narrow, crooked, 
and unclean ; and it presents every where the evidence 
of decline. During the terrible split in the. Church 
which boasts of its unity, seven popes reigned here from 
1305 to 1377. Two great families arose in the bosom 
of Italy, the Gruelphs and the Grhibellines, whose inter- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 97 

Guelphs and Ghibellines. Popes of Avignon. 

ests came into collision. The family quarrel extended 
through the state, and through the kingdoms of Conti- 
nental Europe, and through the Church. Princes, peo- 
ple, and kingdoms, as they sided with this family or 
that, took their names. The family quarrel became, 
in time - , a contest for principles ; and the wars of the 
Gruelphs and the Grhibellines became the struggle be- 
tween the spiritual and temporal power, through which 
it was necessary for Western Europe to pass in order 
to break the power of the Pope, which was crushing- 
all national independence. In this quarrel we find the 
causes of the split in the popedom. 

By the bribery and intrigue of Philip the Fair, an 
ambitious and mercenary man, De Grot, was elected 
Pope, who took the name of Clement Y., and, to keep 
away from the influence of the Italian cardinals, fixed 
his residence in Avignon, which had been subject to 
the Popes since the Albigensian wars. After the death 
of De Grot, there were awful quarrels among the cardi- 
nals as to a successor. They finally agreed to elect 
any one that De Ossa, bishop of Porto, would nominate. 
He, kind fellow, nominated himself, and he was install- 
ed in Avignon as John XXII. He was succeeded by 
Benedict XII., a weak man, whose tomb is shown you 
in the old Cathedral. To him succeeded two or three 
other men, famed for nothing but wickedness and du- 
plicity, until fear of marauders induced Gregory XI. to 
remove his court to Rome in order to secure protection. 
This residence of the papal court in Avignon is called 
by popish writers " the Babylonish captivity of the 
Po-pesP "What a blessing to the world if, like the ten 
tribes, they had been lost forever ! 

E 



98 MEN AND THINGS 

Old palace. Jourdan. Cathedral. Museum 

And there upon the top of the rock, called De Dons 
stands the old palace of the popes, a Gothic building, 
with high, thick walls, and narrow windows, which 
might serve for a palace, prison, or fortification. It is 
now a prison and a barrack, guarded by French sol- 
diery from all entrance by strangers. It was here the 
human butcher, Jourdan, perpetrated his fearful mur- 
ders on men, women, and children. 

And there, too, is the old Cathedral by its side, where 
popes said mass, and then retired to intrigue in the afr 
fairs of kings and nations. We saw a part of a mass 
performed there, and heard, for a few minutes, a lazy- 
looking priest harangue some old women from a pulpit. 
He seemed earnest, and they sleepy. And by the old 
palace stands a lofty tower upward of two hundred 
feet high, from which persons were cast down, for 
summary death, during the frenzy of the Revolution. 
It is the Tarpsean rock of Avignon. The stains made 
by the blood of the murdered are yet pointed out to you 
by the guide. And in going down to the town, you are 
led through dark arched ways, with gratings and dun- 
geons on either hand, which once belonged to that 
" godly and pious institution," the Inquisition. 0, if 
those gratings and dungeons could speak ! 

There is here an old museum filled with curiosities, 
and having many fine paintings ; some from the pen- 
cils of the Vernets, father, son, and grandson. We saw 
there an old man copying inscriptions from the stones, 
who seemed as old as the stones themselves, and not 
unlike them in color. He looked as if disentombed 
with them. He was certainly the Old Mortality of 
Avignon. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 99 

Mine host. A short chat. Religion Catholique. 

" And where do you go, Monsieur ?" said my polite 
host to me, on paying my bill, and as I ordered my 
baggage, and in quite Anglified French. 

" To Rome, sir," I replied. 

" Be you a Catholique ?" he again asked. 

" No," I replied, affecting some surprise, " I am a 
Protestant ; there are not many Catholics in America, 
save those who go there from Europe. The religion 
of Popery does not suit our institutions." 

With a peculiar shrug of the shoulder, and a pecu- 
liar accent, which left you in doubt whether he spoke 
in fun or in faith, he replied, " You do not understand 
the religion Catholique in Amerique. It suits itself to 
all the institutions in the vorld." But America and 
the world is beginning to understand the "religion 
Catholique," and to regard it as it deserves. 

As this was the residence of Petrarch, and the birth- 
place of Laura, we made some inquiries about them ; 
but their names were unknown to those of whom we 
made inquiry, and we had no time to seek those better 
informed. 



100 MEN AND THINGS 

To Marseilles. A cup. The serpent every where. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Avignon to Marseilles. — Mixed People. — The City. — The Sea. — Po- 
lite Captain. — Marseillaise Hymn : its History. — Dietrick's Fate. — 
De Lisle. — Pensioned by Louis Philippe. — The Hymn itself. 

The ride by railway from Avignon to Marseilles is a 
very pleasant one. The country is mostly level around 
you, with occasionally broken hills and shaggy rocks, 
and glimpses now and then of mountains towering in 
the distance. Its historical associations have much to 
interest the antiquarian and the Protestant. The long- 
est tunnel we ever saw is on this route, said to be four 
miles through a solid rock. "While passing through 
it, the cars were lighted by a lamp in their roof. "With- 
in about twenty miles of Marseilles, we came on a lit- 
tle spot of surpassing beauty, in form like a large wash- 
basin, containing one or two hundred acres ; and from 
the bottom to the top it was richly and beautifully cul- 
tivated. The ways of admission to it were tunneled 
through its guardian rocks. To catch the sea breeze, 
you had only to ascend to the top of the basin ; to bask 
in a summer's sun, and to breathe the air of Southern 
France perfumed with flowers, you had only to de- 
scend to its bottom. A more beautiful spot I never 
beheld ; and yet, as if there can be no Eden without 
a serpent, it was marred by women performing field- 
labor, and driving about mules and asses. In about 
three hours from the time we left Avignon, we were 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 101 

Mixed people. Commissionaire. Thoughts at sea. 

put down at Marseilles, an old sea-port town, and the 
great depot of France on the Mediterranean. 

Here we found ourselves at once in a new climate 
and among a mixed people. French, English, Jews, 
Turks, Arabs, we met every where. The Frank, with 
his unvarying mustache ; the Jew, with his long beard ; 
the Turk, with his turban ; the Arab, with his bishop's 
sleeves on his thighs, were to us objects of curiosity. 
Here we expected to meet a party from which we sep- 
arated in Paris, but they had left for us a note, and 
passed on. We soon found ourselves, to our sorrow, in 
the hands of a " commissionaire," a kind of waiter to 
be met at the principal hotels, to accommodate and to 
fleece strangers. Against these horse-leeches, every 
where, from London, all the way round again to Lon- 
don, I would warn every traveler. When I go abroad 
again, I will be my own " commissionaire." 

Though a very old city, Marseilles has but few ob- 
jects of interest. It was founded six hundred years 
before Christ. It early became an ally of Rome. Hav- 
ing espoused the side of Pompey, it was besieged and 
taken by Csesar. Subsequently it became famous for 
its commerce, its fine sailors, and for its schools of learn- 
ing. In the opinion of Cicero, it was " the Athens of 
GaulP 

It was here we had our first view of the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, so associated with all my recollections of ear- 
ly classical studies. And when we trod the deck of the 
steamer Bosphore, as she was plowing her way to Na- 
ples, we thought of the fleets of Agamemnon, of Ulys- 
ses, and of the dangers of iEneas, and of Paul, upon 
the same waves ! The weather was very fine, and the 



102 MEN AND THINGS 



French politeness. Marseillaise Hymn. 



sea seemed as blue and placid as if made of molten 
glass. 

My friend and myself were the only persons speak- 
ing English, on board, and we had the fine cabin to our- 
selves. Our little French was put to a severe test ; 
and when laughing at our blunders, in the way of apol- 
ogy, I would sometimes say to the captain, " Je parle 
la langue Fran^aise tres mauvais." And, without a 
smile, he would reply with energy and emphasis, " Tres 
bien, tres bien, monsieur." An Englishman will smile 
at your mistakes, and sometimes ridicule you because 
of them ; a Frenchman, never. But he is often polite 
at the expense of his sincerity. And the not-under- 
standing look of the captain, as we asked him some 
questions, and his " non comprendre, monsieur," at the 
close, formed a contrast with his " tres bien, monsieur," 
broad enough even to prove to him that he flattered our 
French beyond its merits. Beyond a certain point, flat- 
tery becomes fun, if not falsehood. So I must regard 
all flattery of my French until I understand it better. 

The " Marseillaise Hymn" was associated in my 
mind with the city of Marseilles, and, supposing it was 
written there, I made some inquiry in reference to it. 
As a national song, it had prodigious influence during 
the Revolution ; and so often has it been sung, with joy, 
by Terrorists, Jacobins, and Revolutionists, and heard 
with paleness and trembling by the friends of mon- 
archy and legitimacy, that it is engraved on the very 
soul of France. Its awful chorus, 

" Aux armes, citoyens ! formez vos battaillons ! 
Marehons ! qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons !" 

has often caused the blood of the man in blouse to boil 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 103 

Its history. De Lisle. The hymn written. 

over, and that of the aristocrat to freeze. Its history 
is in this wise : 

Early in the Revolution, Rouget de Lisle, a native 
of the Jura Mountains, was a young officer of the gar- 
rison at Strasburg. He was a musician, a poet, a sol- 
dier. He was often an inmate there of the family of 
one Dietrick, with whose daughters he became a fa- 
vorite. The family was poor but patriotic. " I have 
one bottle of wine left," said Dietrick one evening to 
his daughters : " bring it, and we will drink to liberty 
and our country. Our city is going to have a patriot- 
ic ceremony, and De Lisle must compose a hymn for 
the occasion." The bottle was brought and exhausted. 
De Lisle retired at midnight, his whole soul inflamed. 
He spent the night humming and rhyming, rhyming 
and humming. He dozed. Rising with the day, he 
wrote the hymn and the tune. He called the family 
of Dietrick together, and a few other friends. They 
were all musicians, and loved poetry. They sang, 
they wept, they rejoiced together. The national song 
of France was written. It flew from club to club, from 
city to city. It was sung at the opening of all the 
clubs of Marseilles. A band of young men, called " the 
Confederates of Marseilles," marched to Paris to aid the 
conspirators there. These confederates received the 
name of Marseillaise ; and, singing the hymn as they 
went, it spread over France like lightning. Hence its 
name, "the Marseillaise Hymn." The language and 
the tune are peculiarly exciting, and, when sung in full 
chorus, is said to inspirit even a horse for the battle. 
Its singing was forbidden by the Bourbons, but in the 
revolution of 1830 it became again the national song. 



104 MEN AND THINGS 

Poor Dietrick. The author. Pensioned. 

But the history of this famous hymn is not ended. 
Dietrick, whose wine and exhortation inspired the poet 
to write it, was marched to the scaffold, to the sound 
of the notes first sung in his own house by the aid of 
his family and a few friends ! Nor is this all. The 
author himself was proscribed, and fled. In passing 
along the wild gorges of the Alps, he heard its wild 
notes rising around him, and he shuddered. " What 
do they call that hymn ?" he asked the guide. " The 
Marseillaise," was the reply. He himself called it " An 
offering to Liberty." It was thus he first knew the 
name under which his hymn was destined to immor- 
tality. It is right to add that Louis Philippe, on as- 
cending the throne of France, found out Rouget de 
Lisle, who was then seventy years old, and granted 
him a pension of 1500 francs from his own private 
purse. 

This digression will be forgiven by those who have 
any true conception of the hymn and its influence. It 
is caused by the power of association, the name of the 
city suggesting the national song. It may induce some 
reader to cultivate an acquaintance with perhaps the 
most exciting and soul-stirring national anthem ever 
written. We know of no good English translation of 
it, and we give the hymn as corrected by Lamartine. 

THE MARSEILLAISE. 
i. 

Allons, enfants de la patrie, 
Le jour de gloire est arrive ! 
Contre nous, de la tyrannie 
L'etendart sanglant est leve. 
Entendez vous dans ces campagnea 
Mugir ces feroces soldats ! 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 105 

The Marseillaise Hymn. 

Us viennent jusque dans vos bras 

Egorger vos fils et vos compagnes ! 
Aux armes, citoyens ! formez vos bataillons ! 
Marchons ! qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons ! 

ii. 

Que veut cette horde d'esclaves, 
• De traitres, de rois conjures 1 

Pour qui ces ignobles entraves 

Ces fers des longtemps prepares 1 

Fran9ais, pour vous, ah ! quel outrage, 

Quels transports il doit exciter ! 

C'est vous qu'on ose mediter 

De rendre a l'antique esclavage ; 
Aux armes, &c. 

in. 
Quoi ! ces cohortes etrangeres 
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers 1 
Quoi ! ces phalanges mercenaires 
Terrasseraient nos peres guerriers 1 
Grand Dieu ! par des mains enchainees, 
Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient ; 
De vils despotes deviendraient 
Les maitres de nos destinees ! 
Aux armes, &c. 

IV. 

Tremblez, tyrans ! et vous, perfides, 
L'opprobre de tous les partis ! 
Tremblez, vos projets parricides 
Vont enfin recevoir leur prix ! 
Tout est soldat pour vous combattre : 
S'ils tombent nos jeunes heros, 
La France en produit les nouveaux, 
Contre vous tout prets a se battre. 
Aux armes, &c. 



Fran9ais, en guerriers magnanimea, 
Portez ou retenez vos coups ; 
Epargnes ces tristes victimes 
A regret s'armant contre vous. 

E2 



106 MEN AND THINGS 

The Marseillaise Hymn. 

Mais ces despotes sanguinaires, 
Mais les complices de Bouille, 
Tous ces tigres sans pitie 
Dechirent le sein de leur mere. 
Aux armes, &c. 

VI. 

Amour sacre de la patrie, 
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs ! 
Liberte, liberte cherie, 
Combats avec tes defenseurs ! 
Sous nos drapeaux que la Victoire 
Accoure a tes males accents ; 
Que tes ennemis expirants 
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire ! 
Aux armes, &c. 

VERSE SUNG BY CHILDREN. 

Nous entrerons dans la carriere, 
Quand nos aines n'y seront plus ; 
Nous y trouverons leur poussiere 
Et la trace de leurs vertus ! 
Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre 
Que de partager leur cercueil, 
Nous aurons le sublime orgueil 
De les venger ou de les suivre ! 
Aux armes, &c. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 107 

Mediterranean. Leghorn. Bribery and corruption 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Sail to Leghorn. — A Day in its Bay. — Robbing by Passports. — Leg- 
horn from the Sea. — Corsica. — Napoleon. — A great Man a great 
Need. — Civita Vecchia : its Fortress. — Placard on Notre Dame. — 
Civita Vecchia from the Sea. — Ostia. — Bay of Naples. — Landing 
in Italy. 

Our sail down the Mediterranean was remarkably 
pleasant. The sea was as quiet to Leghorn as an in- 
land lake on a calm, bright summer's day. Until mid- 
night we gazed upon the heavens above us, studded 
with stars, which were reflected from the glassy bosom 
of the sea, and with imaginations filled with dreamy 
thoughts of the scenes which a thousand ages sinqe 
had transpired on these waters, we went to our state- 
room. We awoke in Livornia, as the French call 
Leghorn. 

After looking around us, and knowing our circum- 
stances, we needed no valet to inform us that we were 
in Italy. A strong fortress on our right was guarded 
by Austrian soldiers in white or wool-colored blouse. 
Our passports, given to our captain at Marseilles, were 
sent ashore to get for us permission to land, but no 
permission came. We wished simply to land to see 
the city ; but there was no landing without paying a 
bribe to the police. Every thing in Italy goes by 
"bribery and corruption." We declined the bargain, 
and were, in consequence, confined to the deck of our 
steamer all day, gazing upon boats, ships, soldiers, 



108 MEN AND THINGS 

Intense extortion. Passports. Leghorn from the sea. 

sailors, priests, Jews, Arabs, and Frenchmen, scolding 
and jabbering all around us. The extortion hitherto 
practiced on us was endurable, but in Italy it became 
insufferable from its intensity and frequency, and this 
mainly through the system of passports. Consuls, 
captains, keepers of hotels, porters, commissionaires, 
waiters, custom and police officers, are united in a 
great conspiracy to plunder travelers. Consuls, against 
law and instruction, charge for signing your passport, 
and on entering and leaving the city it has to be re- 
signed and repaid. You can not turn round without 
paying for the privilege. If you enter a church or 
museum, a person demands your cane or umbrella, and 
you have to pay for their release. You are followed 
every where by the most perfect system of annoyance, 
and for the purpose of getting your money. The sys- 
tem of passports was designed to catch rogues, and to 
prevent the going at large of political disturbers of the 
peace of tyrants, but it is retained for the purpose of 
robbing honest travelers. It is the burden of complaint 
every where and by every body, and Britain and 
America should interfere to break it up. The nearer 
you get to the seat of the Pope, the more you are " out 
of humanity's reach." 

A little bustle, and our boat was to sea again for 
Civita Vecchia. From the bay of Leghorn we had a 
good view of the city and surrounding country. The 
city is directly on the sea, and presents nothing invit- 
ing. The hills surrounding it are dotted with houses 
unsheltered by trees. But few houses and no trees 
are to be seen in the country ; hence it presents from 
the sea a very dreary and barren aspect. On our way 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 109 

Corsica and Elba. Need a great man. Civita Vecchia. 

down we passed the islands of Corsica and Elba, whose 
only interest is their connection with Napoleon Bona- 
parte — the one as the place of his birth, and the other 
of his confinement for a few months. They are with- 
in sight of one another and of Italy. That great man 
has impressed his character upon Europe. You meet 
with the traces of his power and genius every where. 
0, for another such man, with all his genius and more 
than his morals. What Europe now wants is a great 
man. A man uniting in himself the genius of Napo- 
leon and the virtue of Washington, would be Heaven's 
greatest gift at this hour to Continental Europe. Be- 
fore such a man the demon of despotism would fall 
prostrate ; petty and priestly tyrants would flee away ; 
the hearts of all desponding patriots would be filled 
with hope and joy ; there would be a universal rising 
of all those sighing in silence over their mental and 
moral slavery ; and free institutions would rise like 
magic, from the North Cape to the Mediterranean, and 
from the Straits of Dover to the Sea of Azof. The 
whole earth should cry to heaven for such a man ! 

We awoke in the morning at the sea-port of Rome, 
Civita Yecchia, and within the temporal dominions of 
the Pope ! The stern towers were frowning around us 
in our very narrow harbor, and the third and fourth 
stories of white brick houses were looking over the 
fortifications upon us. French soldiers were in all the 
fortresses, and the Papal flag floated from all their sum- 
mits. Churches and crosses seemed numerous — the 
ringing of mass and convent bells was incessant. One 
of the fortifications bore the inscription that it was 
erected by Pope Alexander VII., another by Pius VII., 



110 MEN AND THINGS 

Horrible placard. View from the sea. Ostia. 

while yet another bore the coat of arms of the Pope, in 

heavy bass-relief. What inscriptions on towers and 

bulwarks by those pretending to be the vicars of Jesus 

Christ, who came to bring good tidings of great joy to 

all people ! Is it not a wonder the priests themselves 

do not see the baseness of their impositions upon the 

credulity of the ignorant, and for very shame abandon 

them! No wonder that these shaven-pated sinners 

were horror-struck on learning that a placard was 

placed one night on the door of Notre Dame at Paris, 

the object of which was to contrast Christ and the 

Pope as shepherds. It was to this amount : 

" Christ gave his life for the sheep, 
The Pope takes the life of the sheep." 

Looking back upon Civita Yecchia from the deck of 
our steamer as we departed for Naples, it looks as in- 
significant as it is. There are small hills in the back- 
ground surmounted by stunted pines, but the whole 
face of the country looks as barren as Popery can 
make it. Every thing seems smitten with death or 
disease. No houses— no tillage — no flocks or lowing 
herds — no trees, fences, or vineyards. The country 
was once settled ; and why not now ? Late in the af- 
ternoon old Ostia came to view. We were near enough 
to see its few houses, but not a sail, nor a boat of any 
kind or description was there to indicate the mouth of 
the Tiber ! 0, what a change from the time when 
the richest argosies sought its channel, to deposit their 
richest cargoes of treasures in the lap of her who sat 
proudly on the seven hills as mistress of the world ! 
" And is that Ostia ?" said I, with an air of surprise, 
to our captain. " Oui, Monsieur," he replied, with 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. Ill 

Waking up. Vesuvius. Landing in Naples. 

such a toss of both his shoulders as seemed for a mo- 
ment to bury his head between them. 

After spending a third night upon the waters of the 
Mediterranean, we awoke in the morning in the thrice 
beautiful Bay of Naples. The heavy splash of the an- 
chor in the waters broke our slumbers. I raised my- 
self in my berth, and opened the window of my state- 
room to see where I was, and what was the matter, 
and lo ! the very first object that arrested my eye was 
the smoking summit of the fiery Vesuvius ! The de- 
sire indulged from the hour I first read of a volcano 
was now gratified, and there before me, belching forth 
volumes of smoke, stood, although one of the smallest, 
yet one of the most famous of them all ! The emo- 
tions it excited within me I can not describe. 

The boats to carry us and our baggage to the Cus- 
tom-house were soon in waiting for us. As we de- 
scended the ladder, a voice from below asked, " Is there 
any body here for the Hotel New York ?" The name 
of the hotel, and a man speaking English, attracted 
our attention ; we took him for our guide. "We landed, 
and here first touched Italian soil. Every thing seemed 
new, strange, peculiar. Such hosts of beggars sunning 
themselves by the water's side, and so ragged and 
filthy ! Such crowds of soldiers meeting us every 
where, at every corner ! Such swarms of priests trip- 
ping along in three-cornered hats and long dresses, 
pinned up at one side so as to facilitate their walking ! 
Such swarms of donkeys, laden with commodities often 
twice their own size, and a driver sitting on the top 
to boot ! Every thing was new, and many surprising. 
"With very little trouble we passed the Custom-house, 



112 MEN AND THINGS 

Pleasantly lodged. 

and were soon pleasantly lodged in a room facing the 
magnificent bay, and from which, day and night, we 
could look out upon one of the most beautiful panora- 
mic views in the world, one of whose attractive objects 
is the perpetually smoking Vesuvius. 



A8 SEEN IN EUROPE. 113 

Naples. Monastery. Penance for having tongues. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Naples. — Carthusian Monks. — The entire View. — Vesuvius. — Her- 
culaneum. — Pompeii. — Cemetery. — The Morals of the People. — 
Naples thoroughly Popish. — Its Beggars. — Its Priests. — Its Igno- 
rance. — Its Superstitions. — Its Wickedness. — Its awful Despotism. 
— Ferdinand the " Model King." — The blessings of Popery. 

There is an old saying among the Neapolitans, "see 
Naples and die." It is certainly a city beautiful for 
situation. The bay is a deep crescent, and the city, in 
horse-shoe form, rises all around it. As you are rowed 
to the place of landing, the hill on which frowns the 
Castle of St. Elmo rises before you ; on one heel of the 
horse-shoe stands the smoking Vesuvius, on the other 
a headland crowded with houses, and famous for the 
perhaps fabled tomb of Virgil. And the city itself is 
mainly built on the declivity of a mountain, rising 
from the water in the form of an amphitheatre to its 
summit. The very summit is crowned with the Castle, 
strongly fortified. And just beneath it is a capacious 
convent, from whose windows, porches, and walls may 
be taken the most enchanting views of the city, the 
bay, the islands, the fiery mountain, and of every thing 
which has given the Bay of Naples the pre-eminence 
for beauty. This is the Carthusian monastery of S. 
Martino, whose inmates, it is said, but rarely speak- 
thus doing penance for the sin of having tongues ! 
Although famed in history for its many and terrible 
rebellions, and now for the ferocity and brutality of 



114 MEN AND THINGS 

Fidelissima. Herculaneum. Pompeii. 

its princely and priestly despotism, it bears the name 
of fidelissima ; but this describes, not its moral char- 
acteristics, but its beautiful situation, its fertile soil, 
its balmy atmosphere, its clear blue sky, and its other 
manifold physical blessings. Indeed, as you breathe 
its mild air, and gaze upon its splendid scenery, as you 
slowly run your eye along the splendid panorama, from 
Yesuvius on the right, over Capri and Ischia, to Pau- 
silippo on the left, you soon feel a heart beating within 
you with pulsation so generous, as to induce you to 
forgive the lazy Neapolitan who would insist that 
" Naples is a piece of heaven fallen down to earth." 

Naples, its points of beauty, its surrounding curiosi- 
ties, its famed antiquities, have been very often de- 
scribed. As seen from the shore, Vesuvius, with its 
twin mountain, seems like two eggs of immense size, 
joined from centre to bottom, but separated at the top 
— the one an extinguished, the other a smoking vol- 
cano. Herculaneum is between the mountain and the 
city, yet buried under the lava which is congealed 
there into a solid rock, hard as flint. You enter it by 
a rough descent, with lighted torches. Pompeii, on the 
other side of the volcano, and about fourteen miles from 
Naples, was buried in cinders and ashes, which are 
easily removed. It is uncovered, and looks somewhat 
as would have done " the burnt district" of New York, 
after the fire of 1835, if the walls had been left stand- 
ing up to the first or second story, and the rubbish all 
removed. You walk along its open streets, under a 
burning sun, with nothing to fear but lizards, which 
are jumping and crawling around you in myriads. Its 
history, but nothing else, is intensely interesting. The 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 115 

Amphitheatre. Cemetery. Moral state. 

Amphitheatre, where gladiators fought with wild beasts, 
with its seats of marble, sufficient to accommodate 
thousands, rising one above another, is a noble ruin, 
and in fine preservation. The Cemetery of Naples, of 
which but few travelers have taken notice, is a place 
of great beauty, far surpassing that of Pere la Chaise. 
In its centre is a vast under-ground room, over which 
extends an open yard, with many trap-doors in it, into 
which the poor dead are cast, with or without clothes, 
as they may have any or none ; but the tombs of the 
rich are often superb. Shelves for coffins, eight or ten 
high, are made in walls of solid masonry. These 
shelves are closed on the interment of a body. Some 
large chapels are filled in this way, the walls around 
being crowded with the dead, and covered with inscrip- 
tions from floor to ceiling. 

But that which had for us most interest was the 
moral state of the people. Here, perhaps, of all other 
places in Christendom, has Popery all things to its 
mind. The king and queen are intensely popish. It 
was to the protection of the Neapolitan king the Pope 
fled from Rome. The security which Pio Nono could 
not find in Rome or the Vatican, he found at Graeta 
and in the palace of Portici, under the shadow of Ve- 
suvius. Here he was worshiped as the vicegerent of 
heaven, when he was regarded on the Tiber as a tyrant. 

And the priests have every thing to their desire in 
Naples. The king, queen, government — the systems 
of religious instruction and of education, are entirely 
in their hands. And so it has been for ages. Naples, 
with all its institutions, is in the hands of the priests 
as the clay is in the hands of the potter ; and here is 



116 MEN AND THINGS 

Beggars and priests. The people ignorant. 

the place where, without let or hinderance, Popery has 
had the grandest opportunity of showing its tendencies 
and producing its fruits. And what are its influences 
and fruits, as seen in the religious and moral state of 
the people? 

The moment you place your foot on the quay of Na- 
ples, you feel at once that you have landed in a city 
of beggars. You meet them on landing — they dog 
you to the custom-house — to your carriage — to your 
hotel. They meet you in the streets, and, if you give 
away a few coppers, they swarm around you. You 
see them in groups upon all the quays, around all the 
churches, in all the public squares, and in all kinds of 
mutilation and rags. They sleep in the markets, or 
on the steps, or in the porches of churches ; and in the 
city of Naples there are said to be thirty thousand and 
upward of the most beggarly-looking beggars to be 
seen in the world. And yet every thing you see in 
the shape or dress of a priest, save the wretched-look- 
ing mendicant monks, are clothed in fine black cloth, 
and fine linen, and silk stockings, and shining shoe- 
buckles, and look as if they fared sumptuously every 
day. The priests of Naples are the most sleek, rotund, 
joyous, well-fed, self-satisfied set of looking men I ever 
saw. They look and act as if they were in clover. 
Somehow or other, priests and beggars swarm together. 
"Where is an exception ? 

Naples is a city of ignorance. There are humane 
and charitable institutions there, but there is no system 
of education that has in view the masses. None of those 
swarming beggars can read. Such, is the fact as to the 
tier of people above the beggars. The merest fraction 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 117 

No education. Sights. Priests and wickedness. 

of the people know how to read. There is a college for 
the sons of the aristocracy, whose students wear a mil- 
itary uniform ; there are schools where, at great ex- 
pense, the children of the wealthy may be educated. 
But nothing is done for the instruction of the people. 
There are neither " godless" nor godly schools there. 
Hence Naples is an ignorant city. Somehow or other, 
priests and ignorance are always found together. Where 
the priests wield the influence, the masses are in igno- 
rance. "Where is an exception ? 

Naples is a wicked city. "We collected statistics in 
proof of this, but we can not here state them. But the 
evidences of this wickedness you meet every where. So 
numerous are crosses, Virgins, pictures of Christ, light- 
ed candles, and other papal emblems, and so much ex- 
ternal reverence is paid to these things, that a stranger 
might infer there is much piety there. But when you 
see men bowing to the Virgin, and swearing at the 
same time — gambling under a picture of Christ in ag- 
ony on the cross — drinking, dancing, and carousing in 
the presence of a box with a glass door containing an 
image of Mary and Bambino, with a candle burning be- 
fore it — when you see priests in shovel hats, and monks 
with ropes around their loins, playing cards in the open 
streets, what further evidence do you need of a wicked 
and corrupt city ? If the pious and the priests do so, 
what must be the conduct of the sinful and the com- 
mon people ? And the true state of the case is such as 
to sustain any inference we may draw. Where the 
priests wield the influence, the masses of the people are 
wicked. Where is an exception ? 

Of the gross superstition of Naples, what can we say? 



118 MEN AND THINGS 

Gross superstition. A cheat. Despotism. 

You see the proof of it every where. You see it in the 
processions of the Host to the chambers of the dying — 
in their general processions — in the multiplication of 
emblems of worship — in the miserable miraculous jug- 
gle as to the blood of St. Januarius, a cheat practiced by 
the priests on the people three or four times a year ! I 
was in the cathedral church of this saint on " St. John's 
day," which is a high day in Italy. There was high 
mass going on at the altar, at which three cardinals were 
serving. A servitor handed his censer to another, and, 
stepping down from the altar, offered his services. "We 
went to the tomb of the saint under the altar — to the 
little chapel where the blood liquefies — and as the man 
in livery explained all with an air more of increduli- 
ty than of belief, I could not help muttering shame ! 
shame ! If priests in America will strive to explain the 
sentence of the Madiai in Tuscany so as to turn away 
its sharp point from Popery and its priests, what explan- 
ation will they attempt of the cheat as to the blood of 
St. Januarius ? If they say it is a true miracle, the 
country will be in a broad laugh ; if they admit it to 
be what it is, a most gross imposition, what follows ? 
Priests and gross superstition go together. Where is 
an exception ? Surely not where they have all things 
to their liking. 

Naples is most despotically governed. The king is 
a despot, and the priests are his tools and his spies. 
The prisons are filled with prisoners, among whom are 
the noblest and truest men of the country. The old 
Bourbon " lettres de cachet" in all their terrible and 
concealed despotism, are revived ; and, without charge, 
trial, or notice, the very salt of the people are torn from 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 119 

Gladstone's letters. Catechisms. The model kingdom. 

their families and confined in the most noisome and 
deadly dungeons. The awful revelations of G-ladstone 
in his " Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen" will not 
soon he forgotten by the world. The present fearful 
despot granted a Constitution, then revoked it, and then 
cast into prison and into felons' graves the persons that 
formed it, and sustained it by his command. Cardinals 
and bishops have written political catechisms, and they 
are taught by the priests in the schools of the kingdom 
of the Two Sicilies, which teach that all liberally-mind- 
ed persons are eternally lost ; that the people can es- 
tablish no fundamental laws, as all such laws must 
flow from the sovereign ; that the people, who are made 
for submission, can impose no laws upon a sovereign ; 
that a sovereign is not bound to keep his oath when he 
thinks it good to violate it ; and that the Pope can ab- 
solve, when necessary, from the obligation of an oath, 
and from the crime of violating it. "With a catechism 
like this, written by cardinals and bishops, taught by 
the priest in all the schools, and fully believed by a 
Bourbon prince, we leave it to our readers to infer what 
must be the freedom enjoyed, or the despotism felt, by 
the people of Naples. Priests and despotism go to- 
gether. 

And yet, in the view of the Pope and his priests, 
the King of Naples is the model king, and his kingdom 
the model kingdom of the world. He is the monarch 
of the earth whom Pio Nono most delights to honor. 
Nor is there a model after which the Pope and his 
priests would more gladly mould our own happy Re- 
public, were it in their power, than the kingdom of 
Naples. The apologists for the Duke of Tuscany in 



120 



MEN AND THINGS 



Blessings in expectation. 



the case of the Madiai should he the advocates of Fer- 
dinand. 

the blessings, civil, social, and religious, in reserve 
for our country, when priests are in power here as they 
are in Naples ! 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 121 

Fast and feast days. An illumination. San Carloa. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Effect of a Feast-day. — San Carlos. — Mixture. — Capua. — Gaeta : 
its Sights. — The Three Taverns. — First Sight of Rome. — Italy, from 
Naples to Rome. — The Face of the Country. — The People. — Wom- 
an degraded. — Emblems of Superstition every where. — Mass in a 
Village. — Light at Gaeta. — Contrast. — Glorious Associations. — 
Door of Hope. 

By the recurrence of a feast-day, which was succeed- 
ed by the birth-day of the tyrannical king, we were de- 
tained in Naples longer than was comfortable. A feast 
or fast day down here stops all steamers and stages, 
and nearly all business ; even on the wheels of govern- 
ment they put a brake — not so as to the Sabbath-day. 
Man's days are sacred ; the Lord's day is disregarded. 
This is the action of Popery every where. On the birth- 
day of the king, the theatre of San Carlos was opened, 
and the church opposite to it on the square was brill- 
iantly illuminated. The cross by which it is sur- 
mounted was in a blaze of light. Thus Popery mixes 
and mingles the feast, the theatre, the Church — things 
the most opposite — in the same dish, always paying a 
preponderating respect to the earthly element. I stood 
for some time, in the twilight of the evening, near the 
door of the San Carlos, to catch a glimpse of royalty 
and to see the fashion of the city. But the royal fam- 
ily was afraid to risk itself amid the gatherings of a 
theatre, and the great majority of the men I saw enter 
were priests and soldiers. The men in shovel-hata 

F 



122 MEN AND THINGS 

Leaving Naples. Capua. Gaeta. Sights. 

looked as if they cared much for the things of this life, 
and not much for the things of the life which is to 
come. 

When the feast and natal day were over, and con- 
veyances were permitted again to move, we left Naples 
amid a crowd of hoys, priests, and beggars. We soon 
entered the country, which is finely cultivated. Soon 
we thundered through the gates of Capua, where Han- 
nibal took up his residence after his great victory at 
Cannse, and amid dirty lanes and all kinds of noises, 
drew up before the Hotel de Ville. It was any thing 
but attractive. Who would ever think of Hannibal in 
connection with such a place ! Thence we passed along 
the valley of the Voltorno — magnificently cultivated 
and wonderfully productive — to G-aeta, rendered some- 
what noted by the hegira of his Holiness a few years 
since. This place received its name from its being the 
burial-place of the nurse of iEneas, according to Yirgil, 
and in its immediate vicinity Cicero was put to death 
by order of Antony. The Mola di G-aeta is beautifully 
situated on the sea, as is also the town, from which it 
is separated by a valley. But the town itself is in the 
broadest contrast with its magnificent situation. Its 
streets are very narrow, very dirty, and the hotel in 
which we dined was in every respect like them. The 
women wore a most peculiar dress, and the shorts of 
the men reached almost half way to their knees. The 
women sat in groups in the doors and under the shade 
of the walls, nursing their children, and picking each 
other's heads. The oranges were falling from the trees 
as we rode along, and as we knew that they were clean 
when skinned, we ate many of them. Thence we pass- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 123 

Three Taverna. La Rome. Face of Italy. 

ed to Terracina, on the southern extremity of the Pon- 
tine Marshes, on the Appian Way, and where once stood, 
proudly and beautifully, the palace of Galba. After 
crossing the marshes, we spent an hour or more at a 
miserable village, the Three Taverns, rendered famous 
by the visit of Paul. Thence we passed through a 
beautiful and often broken country until we reached the 
heights of Frescati, when Rome, reposing at the bottom 
of the immense basin which here opens upon you, pre- 
sented itself to view. "Voici la Rome!" exclaimed 
our French companions. Soon we appeared before the 
gate Porta (xiovanni. After due search and inquiry, 
we entered the Eternal City ; guarded by an officer, 
we were conducted to the place of customs, and after 
a thorough search for articles contraband and heretical, 
we were permitted to file off, each to the hotel of his 
choice. Very soon I found quiet quarters, after a most 
dusty and fatiguing ride, in the Hotel d'Angleterre. I 
was now in the very heart of the city of Rome ! 

This ride from Naples to the Tiber, though tiresome, 
occupying nearly two days and a night, is a very fine 
one. It gives you new views of Italy, which is much 
broken, very fertile, presenting beautiful sights, and 
crowded with a most stupid and debased-looking peas- 
antry. In fertility it seemed to surpass England or 
France, and you meet every where with groves of or- 
anges and lemons. The fig and the prune abound, and 
the vine trained from tree to tree, and so trimmed as 
not to exclude the sun from the culture beneath, form- 
ing a sort of net- work twelve or fifteen feet high, gives a 
fairy aspect to the scenery. Looking simply at its sur- 
face, fertility, and climate, Italy is a splendid country. 



124 MEN AND THINGS 

The people. Popish emblems. No religion. 

But the people seem remarkably poor and debased. 
Women are seen working with men in the fields, and 
at all kinds of labor, without covering on head or foot, 
and often not decently clad. "We met them often rid- 
ing asses as do men, and merrily singing with them as 
they were returning from the fields to their villages in 
the evening. The villages wear a very faded appear- 
ance, and beggars every where assail you. The coun- 
try is beautiful, the air is balmy, the sky is clear as 
glass ; but you exclaim with amazement as you gaze 
upon the people, Are these the descendants of the Ro- 
mans, whose eagles flapped their wings in the triumphs 
of victory at the extremes of the world ? 

And the emblems of Popery meet you every where. 
The pictures of Mary you see in the shops of the butch- 
er, the baker, the shoemaker, and in the gin-shop, over 
the bottles of wine and brandy. Little alcoves are 
made for them in the walls by the highways, where 
they are often placed with candles burning before them. 
The cross you see every where — in houses, and on them 
— by the way-side, and in the fields — on the tops of 
hay-ricks and stacks of grain. And yet there is no 
scriptural religion among the people. On the Sabbath 
morning we visited a church in one of the interior vil- 
lages ; a very few people were attending mass, perform- 
ed by a most clumsy old priest, while a crowded mar- 
ket was going on in the public square, where were 
priests in dozens, and some of them laughing merrily 
at the tricks of the mountebanks ! So little are people 
affected by these emblems, multiplied until they become 
offensive, that we have seen a man at the same time 
bowing to the Virgin and swearing at his ass ! In pass- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 125 

Amende honorable. True succession. Impressions of a stranger. 

ing through Graeta, a woman, spinning flax after the 
fashion of the place, to save herself in a narrow street, 
turned into an alcove in the wall in which was an im- 
age of the Virgin, which she struck with her flax-stick : 
she quickly turned round, and, crossing herself, dropped 
a courtesy. She evidently made the amende honora- 
ble by asking her pardon ! There is no more religion 
in Italy than when Paganism held dominion there ; 
and there is no more, and probably no less homage to 
the external symbols of religion than when the people 
worshiped the lares and penates. There is no way 
of addressing an ignorant and brutalized people but 
through the senses. And as Popery brutalizes the peo- 
ple, it multiplies the objects of sense. Thus did Pagan- 
ism, and Popery faithfully writes after its copy. This 
is its true succession. 

The American riding through Italy is constantly re- 
minded that he is in a strange land. Convents are seen 
on the tops of the very highest hills, and you are left 
to imagine how they are accessible. Nor can you con- 
jecture the reason why they are so located. Tillages 
are very generally built on the slopes of hills, and in 
positions where they could with ease be very strongly 
fortified and easily defended. No houses are scattered 
over the country, as with us — the people, like sheep, go 
out over the fields by day, and return to the same fold 
in the evening. When you stop at a village to change 
horses or to take a meal, the first and last persons you 
generally see are priests and beggars ; and, while equal- 
ly idle, they differ widely in appearance. The priests 
are round, sleek, and well-dressed — some of them as fat 
as Eglon. The common people look as one might sup- 



126 MEN AND THINGS 

Slavish looks. Associations. The door of hope. 

pose the Hebrews looked in Egypt, when, under the 
cruel tyranny of the Pharaohs, they were obliged to 
make brick without straw ! 

And yet you feel that you are treading a soil of hal- 
lowed association, whose every road, hill, village, river, 
mountain, bay, has its stirring history. In this town 
Hannibal lived. In this narrow pass he was checked 
by Fabius. Here Cicero lived. There he was killed 
by the paid assassins of Antony, who cut off his head 
and hands, and sent them to Rome. Along this road 
marched the legions of Rome to the conquest of the na- 
tions, and on it they marched back again to the Cap- 
itol, leading kings captive, with their victorious ban- 
ners floating over them. In this valley was a death- 
struggle with Goths and Vandals. On that promonto- 
ry Paul landed. Here he met the brethren from Rome, 
and rejoiced with them. Thus every thing has its his- 
tory, and during every step of your progress you are 
dreaming of the past and sighing over the present ! 
Paganism ennobled, Popery has degraded Italy. There 
is no hope for it but in the removal of the priestly tyr- 
anny that has ground it to powder. Let Italy ex- 
change the missal for the Bible, the priest for the true 
minister, the authority of the Pope for that of Grod, 
and it may be again among the nations what it has 
been. This is its only door of hope. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 127 

Rome. First sight. Tower of the Capitoline. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Dreams realized. — Rome from the Tower of the Capitoline. — The 
Tiber. — The Seven Hills. — The Magnificent vanishes. — The Ruins. 
— Bathos. — The Corso : its Appearance. — Afternoon Walk. — Rome 
in June. — A Cause for Thankfulness. 

I am now in Rome, of which I have dreamed, read, 
and thought from youth up, and in reference to which 
I have always entertained the hope that I should see 
it before I should die. My dreams and hopes are all 
fully realized. I am in the very heart of the city of 
the Caesars ! 

As a thirsty traveler rushes to a water-brook, bends 
down to the stream, and slakes his thirst at the first 
draught, so we determined to fill our minds and hearts 
with Rome by a first sight. For this purpose we as- 
cended the Capitoline Hill, passed, with a bare recog- 
nition, the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux, and 
the magnificent equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, 
and clambered up to the Tower of the Capitoline. "We 
felt disposed to turn away from the views presented at 
the various angles of ascent, until the eye, without ob- 
struction, could sweep the entire panorama. We gained 
the highest point, and Rome lay at our feet ! The city 
of the Caesars, all in ruins, lay on one side of the hill ; 
the city of the Popes, with its palaces and churches, on 
the other. Beyond the walls, deserted and death-like, 
lay the Campagna, an irregular plain, which of old con- 
tained parts of Latium and Etruria, while the horizon 



128 MEN AND THINGS 

Rome at our feet. The Tiber. The Seven Hills. 

was bounded by the blue line of the ocean, Soracte, the 
Sabine, and Volscian hills. Hope was lost in fruition ; 
the poetry of our feelings passed away like foam upon 
the waters, and there lay Rome in its ruins, its splen- 
dor, and its prose, before us. And, at the risk of being 
charged with a want of taste, a want of reverence, a 
want of historic appreciation, and perhaps many other 
wants, I will give my own views of men and things as 
I saw them in Rome. 

Looking out from the tower of the Capitol, the Tiber 
flows beneath you, dividing the city into two equal 
parts. It is a narrow, muddy, winding stream, spanned 
by four or five bridges — on which not a mast is seen, 
nor a boat plying, nor a sign of life, save a machine for 
catching fish, which, turned by the current, is evermore 
lazily tossing its arms in the air ! You are struck with 
its utter meanness, and exclaim, "Is that the Tiber?" 

You ask your valet, after running your eye around 
in vain search for them, " Where are the Seven Hills?" 
And he points you to little swellings here and there 
within the walls, saying, " That is the Aventine, and 
that is the Palatine, and that is the Coelian, and that 
is the Esquiline, and that is the Q,uirinal, and that is 
the Yiminal, and this upon which you are standing is 
the Capitoline." And there they lie, all within a cir- 
cumference far too narrow to bound the plantation of 
even a moderate Western farmer ! And when it is re- 
membered that cities were built upon those hills — that 
nations contended in the valleys that separate them — 
that in these valleys, over which an Indian would shoot 
his arrow, the Etruscans, the Sabines, the Latins con- 
tended for empire, how the magnificent takes its depart- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 129 

Poetry gone. Ruins. Coliseum. A wilderness. 

ure from all the views we were led to entertain in our 
youthful days as to the origin of Rome and the Ro- 
mans ! Indeed, while straining our eyes in the direc- 
tion of the finger of our valet pointing out this hill and 
that, we made the remark that, were it not for his kind 
aid, we could not have found out the seven hills even 
with a search-warrant. And soon the poetry of " the 
seven hills" was all gone ! 

And there "beneath us are the ruins of the Roman 
Forum, consisting of falling pillars, tottering walls, and 
rubbish in piles, giving obvious indications of former 
magnificence, strength, and extent. And at a little 
farther remove are the ruins of the Coliseum, grand, 
historic, and suggestive of scenes and events from 
which the mind and heart recoil. And, as we subse- 
quently wandered amid its arches, and around and over 
its walls and seats, we could recall the day when the 
holy Ignatius was turned into the area — when that 
area was crowded with matrons, virgins, confessors, 
and when wild lions, tigers, leopards were let loose 
upon them, and, amid the plaudits of some eighty thou- 
sand spectators, tore them to pieces ! And in full view, 
scattered over the Esquiline and Palatine Hills, and 
the space between them, are the column of Trajan, 
the arch of Titus, the palace of the Csssars, the baths 
of Titus, the arch of Constantine, and the ruins of tem- 
ples, mutely eloquent as to the past and present. The 
columns and arches are noble — the Coliseum is mag- 
nificent, worth going to Rome to see — but, in the main, 
the ruins have nothing save historic interest ; and you 
are soon lost in a wilderness of foundations and- dilap- 
idating walls. And when we saw brawny Italians 
F2 



130 MEN AND THINGS 

Bathos. The Corso. Walk in the afternoon. 

stuffing the palace of the Caesars with hay to feed the 
horses of the French — and swarthy women hoeing po- 
tatoes and cabbage upon the top of it — and the Forum 
changed into a cow market — and other things after the 
same fashion, the reader may judge how suddenly we 
fell from the poetic region in which we had so long rev- 
eled, into the prosaic bathos of roofless walls, crumbling 
arches, and piles of brick ! 

And there, too, is the famous Corso, right under your 
eye, and running straight as an arrow from the base of 
the Capitoline to the Piazza del Popolo and the Fla- 
minian Grate ! This is the great street of Rome, said 
in the guide books to have been adorned by at least 
three popes ! And as it derives its name from horse- 
races which were introduced there by the pious pope 
Paul II., every stranger would expect to find it a wide 
street, adorned with trees, and crowded with palaces ! 
But not a tree is to be seen there. It is as narrow as 
John Street in New York. The sidewalks are too nar- 
row for two persons to walk arm-in-arm. The houses 
are very high and very irregular ; and the palaces, as 
they are called, because of the heavy iron gratings of 
the windows, look more like prisons than places of pri- 
vate and aristocratic residence. The middle of the 
street is the great promenade ; and it is quite peculiar 
to see in the afternoon a dense crowd in the street, 
dodging in every direction to save themselves from the 
carriages which are slowly winding their way along, as 
if to expose the jewelry and gorgeous attire of their oc- 
cupants to the view of the pilgrims to the city of the 
Caesars. 0, if the races of Paul II., of blessed memory, 
could only be renewed there on a fair afternoon in April, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 131 

Is this the Corso ? Rome a deserted city. 

what a scene would be witnessed in the famous Cor- 
so ! And as, with my friend in travel, we first walked 
down this street to the Piazza del Popolo, where stands 
the obelisk of Rhamses, which once stood in Heliopo- 
lis as a decoration of the Temple of the Sun, the ques- 
tion was often smilingly asked of one another, " Is this 
the famous Corso ?" When this is the Broadway and 
the Fifth Avenue of Rome, it requires no very vivid 
imagination to conjecture what the city, as a whole, 
must be ! We were as much disappointed at the Cor- 
so as we were at the " Yellow Tiber," or at seeing 
cabbages growing on the top of the Palace of the Em- 
perors ! 

There is, no doubt, more life here during the win- 
ter, and at the season when the fasts and feasts of the 
Church call strangers together to witness the buffoon- 
ery of the Carnival, and the dramatic performances of 
Holy Week, when pope, cardinals, prelates, and priests 
are the actors ; but, during the days of our sojourn, it 
seemed like a deserted city. Those days were in early 
June, when the strangers had mostly returned north, 
and when but few, save the citizens, remained. But 
few were seen at the various points of interest. There 
were no houses building — no new streets opening — no 
ships or steamers on the river — no manufactures — no 
railway cars whistling along. The shops were all 
small, and mostly for the sale of pictures, cameos, in- 
taglios, and mosaics ; and but few to purchase. For a 
short while in the afternoon the Corso was crowded ; 
but until then, and afterward, it seemed like a city 
deserted. French soldiers were there — their drums 
were beating at all hours in some direction ; priests 



132 MEN AND THINGS 

Lonely feeling. Cause of thankfulness. 

were there in any number, and tripping along with a 
most self-satisfied air at all hours ; and beggars, that 
always follow priests, as does the shadow its shade, 
were to be met every where. But yet the city seemed 
deserted. I felt, in kind, the feeling of loneliness which 
oppressed me in going through the streets of Pompeii. 
It would seem as if some dreadful miasma was hang- 
ing over it, from which as many as could had fled, and 
of which those who could not flee lived in constant 
terror. I thanked God a thousand times that I was 
neither a Roman nor a papist. And these are mercies 
for which I have to thank him daily. 

But I am not yet done with Rome. " Thus endeth 
the first lesson." 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 133 

Object stated. ' Foul arts. St. Peter's. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Object stated. — Saint Peter's. — From Top to Bottom. — Chat in the 
Basement. — Its Grandeur and Amplitude. — Statue of St. Peter. — 
Its Worship disgusting. — Mass there. — A disappointed Confessor. 
— The Scene of the Rod.— /The Sublime and Ridiculous. — The 
Confessional, or Tomb of St. Peter. — Poor Ives's Emblems of Office. 
—The Wafer Taken.— A Farce. 

As the great object of my visit to Rome was to see 
for myself the workings of Popery at the very centre 
of the system, and under the eye of its infallible head, 
I sought to render every hour of my time, and all 
my researches, subservient to my one object. My 
readers will give me credit, at least, for honesty, when 
I frankly own that I was as much interested to discover 
the foul arts of the priests, as I was to look upon those 
immortal productions of the fine arts, which, together 
with its ruins, now form the only attractions of Rome, 
whose power was once supreme in the world. 

Of course we went to St. Peter's, the noblest edifice 
of its kind in the world, and as we gained the point 
where we had a first view of its towering front, sur- 
mounted by the apostles — of its semicircular colonnades 
adorned with nearly two hundred statues — of the ma- 
jestic pillar, sent to Rome by Caligula, that rises in the 
centre of the piazza — of the fountains which send up 
their snow-white foam, we stood and gazed in mute won- 
der ! Until now, my disappointment almost reached the 
point of dejection, but now my expectations rose to the 



134 MEN AND THINGS 

The magnificent. A picture. Wealth of art. 

point of astonishment. We entered. Our astonishment 
rose as we went around the magnificent interior. And 
as we gazed upon the splendid nave — the gigantic pil- 
lars — the stupendous dome that swells up nearly five 
hundred feet, arrayed in beauty to the very apex — the. 
wonderful creations of art that meet the eye at every 
point, we felt overwhelmed with a sense of the beauti- 
ful and the magnificent ! We clambered up to the 
top and looked again over the city, and feasted our 
eyes upon every thing that could be seen from that 
elevated position. We descended to the apartments 
beneath the building, where, by the aid of torches, we 
examined little gems of chapels and altars, and beau- 
tiful statuary and painting. Down in those dark 
chambers we were shown a picture of the Judgment, 
with robbers, murderers, and bad women on the left, 
and a great array of popes and cardinals on the right. 
" Why," said one of the company, to the guide, " why 
not put others on the right as well as popes and car- 
dinals ?" " 0," said he, with a shrug, " the painter 
was paid by the Pope to paint it, and he must put 
them there ; he was paid for doing it." Although he 
had a shaven crown, and was an official of the Church, 
he evidently intimated that some on the right hand 
might, in truth, have been placed on the left. 

Regarded in whatever point of view, save as a house 
for the true worship of Grod, St. Peter's is a magnificent 
building. You are lost in its amplitude, which is suf- 
ficient to give room to fifty thousand persons, and you 
are amazed at its wealth of architecture, statuary, and 
painting, at which you gaze and wonder, until your 
sensations of pleasure become oppressive. I visited it 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 135 

Last view. Statue of St. Peter. Sights. 

often, and always with increasing admiration of its 
grandeur, proportions, and magnificence ; and as I 
stood taking my last view of it, at the point where I 
took my first, a feeling of sadness came over me at the 
reflection that I should never see it again. I had seen 
other cathedrals before, St. Paul's, Westminster, Notre 
Dame, and have seen others since, including those of 
Turin, Strasburg, and Cologne, but in comparison with 
St. Peter's, they are as the Grampians to the Alps, or 
as the Falls of the Clyde to Niagara. 

And yet, as a house of Christian worship, how ut- 
terly offensive to a Protestant ! There, conspicuously 
poised, where all eyes may behold it, in the great nave, 
and near the high altar, is the bronze statue of St. 
Peter. It is a sitting figure, resting on a marble ped- 
estal, with an impulsive, stern expression ; the right 
hand raised as if in the act of blessing, and holding 
two ponderous keys in its left. Save the head and 
hands, this is the old Jupiter Tonans, with thunder- 
bolts exchanged for keys. It is a very uncouth affair, 
and is in striking contrast with the perfection of beauty 
by which it is surrounded. If the thunder-bolts had 
only been retained, it would be a good representation 
of Popery — black, ugly, fierce in aspect, with keys to 
lock up all heretics, and bolts to strike opponents dead ! 
And to see old women and silly girls, soldiers gilded 
and plumed, peasants from the Campagna, ladies with 
liveried servants, and now and then, " few and far be- 
tween," an ecclesiastic, bowing to this ugly man in 
bronze, wiping off the kiss of the last worshiper, and 
then imprinting one of their own on its toe, and rub- 
bing that toe with their foreheads — if all this is not 



136 MEN AND THINGS. 

Deep ingratitude. Funny boys. Confession. 

disgusting, I should like to know what is. 0, if Peter 
himself were only there, how he would spurn such silly 
idolaters from his presence ! And while gazing upon 
the scene, I was informed that, when last in Rome in 
fiery pursuit of a pair of red stockings, the venerable, 
pious, retiring, bashful John of New York prostrated 
himself most profoundly before this image ! And yet 
he was refused the red stockings ! What ingratitude 
for such pious humiliation ! 

And there, too, on all sides, are altars and confes- 
sion-boxes, where masses are muttered, where sins are 
confessed and forgiven, for a compensation. At some 
of these altars I saw masses in progress, without a per- 
son to witness them save the boys in waiting ; and 
when the priest was reading from the mass-book, these 
boys were often playing pranks behind his back ! Even 
in St. Peter's, the mass is falling into the contempt 
which it merits. Even before the altar, boys are mak- 
ing fun of the priest ! 

And it was pleasant to see fat-looking priests sitting 
in their confession-boxes, anxiously waiting for cus- 
tomers, and without finding any ! I was struck with 
the face of one of these fathers, and walked several 
times in front of his box for the purpose of reading it ; 
but it was too darkly shaded to be legible. I thought 
he looked at me as if he had caught a fat customer, 
but he was mistaken. A poor woman came along 
and dropped on her knees by the side of his box. She 
looked as if she needed both forgiveness and alms. 
While whispering into his left ear, another woman came 
along, and stood at a respectable distance before thebox. 
She dropped courtesies until she attracted the notice 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 137 

Long rod. Little sins. The confessional. 

of the knight of the box. She then fell on her knees, 
and soon a long rod like unto a fishing-rod was slowly 
extended from the box, and thrice laid upon her head. 
She then crossed herself, rose from her knees, and went 
smiling away. " And what," said I to our valet, "is 
the meaning of all this ?." " That woman," said he, 
" is a little sinner ; perhaps she told a little lie, or 
got a little angry, or said some bad word not big 
enough to confess — her so standing before the priest is 
a confession of some such little sin — and he laid the 
rod upon her in token, and as a sign, of forgiveness." 
Such was the sight seen, and such was its explana- 
tion ! What horrible perversion of the G-ospel, under 
the light which comes pouring down the dome of St. 
Peter's, and in the presence of the high altar, where 
the Head of the Church alone can officiate ! And what 
a labor-saving process for confession, and to obtain for- 
giveness ! A courtesy is a confession, and the sticking 
out of a long rod conveys pardon ! And all this in St. 
Peter's ! The ridiculous in the presence of the sublime ! 
"With a guide-book in my hand, I was walking 
around, gazing now at this painting, now at that 
group of statuary, and now at that superb mosaic. I 
stopped before the high altar, and by the confessional, 
as it is called, which contains the grave of St. Peter. 
It is surrounded by a marble balustrade, from which 
are suspended many lamps constantly burning. A 
double flight of steps leads down to the shrine, where 
is a kneeling pope by Canova, and other statues. A 
silver-gilt box rests upon the tomb of St. Peter, in 
which are placed the palli, when finished by the with- 
ered nuns of St. Agnes, which the Pope confers on the 



138 MEN AND THINGS 

Palli. Poor [vea. The wafer in St. Peter's. 

priests when made archbishops. They are placed there 
to absorb some virtue from the holy atmosphere which 
there circulates ! It is somewhere about this tomb 
the Pope is said to have hung the badges of office of 
poor Bishop Ives, on his recent surrender of them, with 
his faith, at the foot of the sovereign pontiff! Is it 
not a wonder that sensible men do not see how closely 
Puseyism treads upon the heels of the ridiculous and 
farcical ! 

As I turned away from the " Confessional," I ob- 
served a young man of medium appearance, half-way 
between a peasant and a shop-keeper, making his way 
to an altar. He knelt before it. I stood to witness 
the result. He prayed for a brief time. Without 
changing his position, he looked round and beckoned to 
a boy. They whispered. The boy ran off, and soon 
returned with a priest. The wafer was taken out — 
converted into Grod— was laid upon the man's tongue — 
and the priest was away again ! The whole thing 
was over in as short time as it takes me to write this 
account of it. This was the only instance I saw in 
Italy of a man taking the wafer. This was in St. 
Peter's, and the whole thing, as far, at least, as the offi- 
cials were concerned, was a farce. There is no wor- 
ship in this basilica of the popes, it is only a splendid 
temple of the arts. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 139 

The Sistine. Fresco of St. Bartholomew. Of the Judgment. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Sistine. — Fresco of the Judgment. — Entrance of Cardinals. — En- 
trance of the Pope. — Salutation of the Pope. — His Appearance. — 
Anecdote of Dr. Miller. — Questions. — Cardinals. — Antonelli. — How 
to modify our Opinions and Ideas. — How absurd appear the Claims 
of Popery in the Sistine. 

The Sistine Chapel is, of course, an object of great 
curiosity at Rome. It is connected with the palace of 
the Vatican, which is adjoining St. Peter's, and is the 
private chapel of the Pope. You ascend the famous 
stair-case of Bernini, which is guarded at the foot by 
"the Swiss Guards," the most fantastical-looking sol- 
diers imaginable, and enter the Sala Regia, a large au- 
dience-chamber adorned with fine frescoes, and, among 
others, with that commemorating the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew ! Papists would deny any responsibility 
for that horrible massacre, and yet its blessed memory 
is perpetuated in the Vatican by a splendid fresco ! 
From this chamber you enter the Sistine, and the fresco 
of the Judgment, by Angelo, sixty feet high and thirty 
broad, is before you. This is universally admitted to 
be the most extraordinary picture in the history of the 
art of painting. The conception is such as the genius 
alone of Angelo could embody, and the result is grand 
and sublime. Although faded by the triple effect of 
damp, time, and the incense so often burned on the al- 
tar beneath it, it is difficult to weary in gazing upon it. 

This spot we frequently visited ; and it was here, at 



140 MEN AND THINGS 

Entrance of cardinals. Saluting the Pope. His appearance. 

vespers and matins, on feast-days, we had our views 
of the Pope and his cardinals. The cardinals enter by 
the same door as do strangers — walk along the aisle, 
with a servant untwisting their robes, to the inner of 
the three apartments into which it is divided — there 
they kneel and pray toward the altar, their attendants 
fixing their robes all the while — then they rise, and, 
after bowing to the altar and to their brethren on the 
right and left, take their seats, with their servants at 
their feet. 

When all is in preparation, there is a bustle, and 
soon the Pope enters by the opposite door, bows to the 
altar, and goes up to his chair. Then one after the 
other the cardinals leave their seats, their scarlet robes 
trailing behind them ; and after saluting the Pope by 
kissing his hand covered by his vestments, they return 
to them. When this ceremony, which fills you with 
disgust for the actors, is over, the services commence, 
which are mostly conducted by a choir made up of 
men and eunuchs. Twice did I witness these cere- 
monies in the Sistine ; on the first occasion there were 
sixteen, on the second, twenty-three cardinals in attend- 
ance. The Pope is a man of fine proportions, six feet 
two or three inches high, with a pleasing, pensive as- 
pect, not very Italian in a visage which is more ex- 
pressive of good nature than of talent or firmness. He 
might do very well to govern a convent ; but he is ut- 
terly unqualified for his double position as the head of 
a church and of a state. Personally he is amiable and 
well-meaning ; in morals he stands higher than his 
predecessors or cardinals; and that is all. While in 
his presence I thought of an anecdote told of the good 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 141 

Anecdote of Dr. Miller. My thoughts. Antonelli 

Dr. Miller, of Princeton. When in the Seminary there, 
I had a fellow-student of far more beauty than brains, 
and who, like all such, was quite a pretender. An 
elder from a country church went to the professor to 
inquire for a pastor, and he named to him several 
young gentlemen. " I have heard," said the elder, " of 

Mr. ," naming the pretty student; " what do you 

think of him, Dr. Miller ?" Not wishing to say any 
thing against, nor yet willing to commit himself as 
strongly recommending the student, he hesitated, but 
finally replied, " He is a confoundedly good-looking 
felloiv." This is about my estimate of Pio Nono. 
Yet I confess that while gazing upon him, dressed so 
gorgeously, and receiving so coldly the profound hom- 
age of the cardinals, I could not help asking, Is that 
the man who retired under the pretense of going to 
pray, dressed himself in the livery of a servant, jumped 
upon the box of a carriage, and was off to Graeta ? Is 
that the vicar of Jesus Christ in our world — the head 
of the visible Church — without a belief in whose claims, 
and an abject submission to them, I can not enter 
heaven ? 

And what shall I say of the cardinals ? Some of 
them were very old, bending under the weight of years ; 
some of them were very plethoric, and quite in danger 
of apoplexy ; and some of them quite young for their 
position, and good-looking. But none of them so im- 
pressed me as did Antonelli, the cardinal Secretary of 
State. Young, say forty-five — thin, tall, with penetrat- 
ing eye, and a face strongly expressive of intellect, 
passion, and will, you would single him from the rest 
as a real spirit. And such, by all accounts, he is. He 



142 MEN AND THINGS 

The Pope a puppet. Ideas modified. Infallibility. 

is the soul of the College of Cardinals ; he is the real 
Pope, while Pio Nono is a mere puppet in his hands, 
used simply to give validity and legality to his acts. 
And he is all his looks indicate ; shrewd, far-seeing, 
vindictive, tyrannical, of an iron will, profuse, and prof- 
ligate in his morals. Such is his reputation ; such is 
the portrait of him given me by one who knew him 
well, and for years. There was a crowd in the Sistine 
on each of the occasions to which I allude ; nor was 
there a person there of any mark that escaped the no- 
tice of Antonelli. When the Pope was reading the 
missal, this cardinal was reading the audience, and I 
was striving to read the cardinals. 

How a few sights like those witnessed in the Sistine 
modify many of our feelings and opinions ! A bishop 
or archbishop, singly, is quite a person ; a single car- 
dinal in a country, as "Wiseman in England, is far more 
so ; but when you see them in crowds, as in Rome or 
Naples, you soon pass them by without notice. When 
you learn their true character, you despise them ; you 
regard them as does a good man self-righteousness — 
the more, the worse. With us a living lizard adds to 
the attraction of a raree-show ; but when they surround 
you every where, as in Italy, they become excessively 
offensive. 

And as you gaze upon the Pope and cardinals in the 
Sistine, how the idea of infallibility, as taught by the 
Papists, takes unto itself wings ! What, that good- 
looking, good-natured, but yet not intelligent-looking 
man, infallible ! Believe it who can. What, the Pope, 
and these cardinals in conclave, infallible ! The idea 
is preposterous. And to feel that it is preposterous, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 143 

Lunacy. For and against. Popery detested in Borne. 

nothing is required but to visit the Sistine, and to wit- 
ness their gorgeous buffoonery, which, if performed 
without priestly robes, would subject them to the im- 
putation of lunacy. And are these the men who give 
laws to the papal world — who make bishops and arch- 
bishops in America — who send Wiseman, in red stock- 
ings, to England — who decide the question as to col- 
leges in Ireland — who turn their people against the 
crown in Britain — for the crown in Austria — against 
liberty in Sardinia and Hungary — and for it, wherever 
they can remove let or hinderance to the extension of 
their ghostly dominion ? Yes, these are the very men, 
parading their man-millinery before you, and claiming 
to exercise by Divine right an irresponsible power, 
which, when allowed, lays the world at their feet. And 
will their claims be allowed ? Yes, when the light of 
truth has ceased its shining — when the Gospel-sun has 
fallen from its orbit — when the sea has ceased its 
soundings. If there is a city in the world where Pop- 
ery can be so read as to be detested, it is Rome ; and 
if there is a spot in Rome where the claims of Popery 
seem more ridiculous than another, it is where the 
Pope and cardinals most do congregate. And when 
I see clever men, in other respects, pleased as a child 
with a bawble, with the fillets which these priests of 
the Sistine confer — seeking advice at their hands as to 
how they are to manage unruly Americans — taking 
pompous airs upon themselves because of the favors 
which they confer — placing a dagger before their 
names, which, if needful, I fear, they would plunge into 
the very heart of our liberties at their bidding, because 
of their advancing them up a rung or two in the priest- 



144 MEN AND THINGS 

Enormous falsehood. Procession of donkeys. 

ly ladder ; and with the broad banner of our country 
floating over them, acting as the tools and the spies 
of these Italian ghostly despots, it requires all the gen- 
erous actings of my nature to maintain for them a 
particle of respect. 

Popery as a system is an enormous falsehood ; may 
Grod save America from its deceivings and its tools. To 
wipe out every suspicion from the mind that there may 
be some truth in the high claims of the Pope and his 
college of cardinals, nothing is necessary but a visit 
to the Sistine. The person who can not be thus cured, 
is a fit subject for the solemn procession of donkeys 
which seek the blessing of his holiness on the Feast of 
St. Antony. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 145 



City of prodigies. tineas. Mars. 



Vultures 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Prodigies of Roman History.— Rome yet a City of Prodigies.— Juggle 
of St. Januarius. — Holy House of Loretto. — Bambino. — Scala 
Sancta.— Maria Maggiore.— Statue of Mary at St. Agostine.— Holy 
Chain in St. Peter's, in Vinculo.— Well in St. Maria, in Via Lata.— 
Prayer in the Church of St. Gregory.— Popery a prodigious False- 
hood. 

Rome has been always a city of prodigies ; prodigies 
abound in Roman history from its earliest annals. 
iEneas was the son of Venus, a goddess. Led by the 
god Mercurius, he fled from Troy. This god built for 
him a ship, in which he put to sea with his company. 
The ship was miraculously conducted to Latium ; on 
landing, he was conducted by a white sow to the place 
of his first habitation. When the race of Anchises 
seemed destined to extinction, the god Mars interposed, 
and by Sylvia, then a vestal, became the father of Rom- 
ulus and Remus. Sylvia and her two boys were cast 
into the Tiber ; Sylvia became a goddess, and the wife 
of the god of the river. Her two boys were stranded near 
the Palatine Hill, and were taken by a she-wolf to her 
cave, who fed them as a mother. When they needed 
something more than milk, meat was brought them 
by a woodpecker, and other birds of augury hovered 
round the mouth of the cave to keep off insects from 
the sons of Mars ! When Rome was to be built, these 
two brothers were divided in opinion as to the location ; 
but the flight of vultures decided for the Palatine Hill 

a 



146 MEN AND THINGS 

Remus. Mass instituted. Romulus. The succession. 

and for Romulus. Remus was killed by his brother 
for contemptuously stepping over a rampart made by 
him around the hill ; but subsequently announced his 
forgiveness of his brother, on the condition of the in- 
stitution of a feast to commemorate his memory, and 
on which a kind of a mass should be said for the re- 
pose of his soul. In a battle with the Sabines the Ro- 
mans were flying before them ; but Romulus called 
upon Jupiter, and vowed to build him a temple if he 
would give him victory. The Romans returned to the 
conflict, gained the victory, and hence the temple of 
Jupiter Stator. Romulus was taken to heaven by his 
father Mars in a thunder-storm, where he was wor- 
shiped as a god, under the name of Q,uirinus. But 
the time would fail me to tell of the prodigies of the 
pious Nuraa — of the shower of stones on Mount Alba 
— of the eagle taking away the cap of Lucumo, and 
replacing it — of Altus cutting a whetstone with a 
razor — of the flames that played round the head of 
the infant Servius — of the statue of Servius rebuking 
his impious daughter — of the fresh bleeding head dug 
up on the Capitoline Hill in preparing the foundations 
for the fanes of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva — and of 
the thousand and one wonders which abound in the 
history of regal, consular, and imperial Rome. 

Nor is the city of the seven hills less a city of prodi- 
gies now than in the days of augury, pagan priests, 
speaking statues, and heads bleeding afresh when dug 
from under the mountains. However the chain of 
succession, in other respects, has been broken — in this 
respect it has been prodigiously maintained. Prodi- 
gies, prodigies, meet you every where in Italy, and 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 147 

Present prodigies. St. Januarius. Loretto. Bambino. 

priests and bishops are every where found to swear to 
their truth ; and when the Pope says Amen, then these 
prodigies become matters of Catholic faith. Of the jug- 
gle about the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius 
at Naples, I have already said something. what 
a shameful hoax ! and now practiced thrice or four 
times a year, to confirm the vulgar belief! 

And there is the " Holy House of Loretto," a peevish 
and nervous compound of stone and wood, which flew 
from Palestine to Dalmatia, and then from Dalmatia 
across the Adriatic to Lauretum, in Italy, in which 
there is a miraculous image of Mary, which has per- 
formed more miracles than Moses, Christ, and all the 
apostles together. And there is the picture of Mary, 
faded, dark, and ugly at the present day, at whose 
fane thousands and tens of thousands now yearly offer 
up their adorations ! And all the lying legends about 
this rickety house are endorsed by the Right Rev- 
erend P. R. Kenrick, of St. Louis, a foreign priest who 
has come commissioned from Rome to enlighten the 
ignorant and unconverted Americans ! What an en- 
lightened people we will be when our credulity has 
grown so as to exercise a full faith in such a monster 
absurdity. 

And there is the wonderful Bambino, which mine 
own eyes have seen, in the church of Ara Coeli, on the 
Capitoline Hill, and in reference to which I have al- 
ready said something to Chief-justice Taney. It is a 
doll, which looks as if it was made in Germany and 
dressed in Italy, representing the infant Christ. Its 
history is, of course, miraculous. It was made in 
Palestine — was lost at sea — suddenly appeared at Leg- 



148 MEN AND THINGS 

The angelical doctor. Scala Sancta. Maria Maggiore, 

horn — was conducted in triumph to Rome — was stolen 
away by a pious lady — was restored by angels to its 
place again in Ara Cceli, amid the ringing of bells, 
and at this hour gets more fees, and is said to cure 
more patients, than all the doctors of Rome ! The 
richly-jeweled doll is conveyed in a sumptuous car- 
riage, attended by priests and guards, to the houses of 
the sick ; if they get well, Bambino has the credit ; if 
they die, it has none of the blame ! Where, in the pa- 
gan and fabulous annals of Rome, is a prodigy to sur- 
pass Bambino ? 

And there is the Scala Sancta, at St. John Lateran. 
This, too, has its miraculous history. It consists of 
twenty-eight marble steps, which, tradition says, be- 
longed to the house of Pilate, and down which the 
Savior descended when he left the judgment-seat. 
It was carried by angels to Rome, as the house of Lo- 
retto was carried to Dalmatia, and thence to Italy. 
None are permitted to go up these steps save on their 
knees ; and by doing so, the person secures certain ple- 
nary indulgences, and for years together. I saw with 
sorrow devotees crawling up these steps. My feet 
trod upon the three upper steps, and behold, I yet live ! 
It was crawling up these very steps that the great doc- 
trine of justification by faith burst upon the mind of 
Luther, with a brightness which was never eclipsed. 
It is one of the great prodigies of Rome. 

And there is the fine basilica of St. Maria Maggiore, 
so called from being the chief church of Rome dedi- 
cated to Mary. It is upon the Esquiline Hill, and 
upon the very ground selected for the purpose by heav- 
en, and indicated by a fall of snow covering precisely 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 149 

Toe of Mary. Peter's chain. Miraculous well. 

the ground, on the 5th day of August ! Can the show- 
er of stones on Mount Alba surpass this ? Beneath 
an altar in this church are the swaddling-clothes which 
covered the Savior when laid in the manger ! Are not 
these prodigies ? 

In the church of St. Agostine is a statue of Mary 
and the infant Savior, by Sansovino. It possesses 
great sanctity and efficacy ; but why, I could not learn. 
I saw crowds of poor people kissing the toe of Mary, 
and rendering the most revolting homage to the stat- 
uary ! And the church, its naves, its pillars, its altars, 
are glittering all over with hearts hung on them by the 
persons who obtained healing by kissing the toe of 
Mary, and rendering homage to the marble representa- 
tion of herself and her Son ! 

In the church of St. Peter's, in Vinculo, is the chain 
which bound St. Peter when in prison in Jerusalem. 
That holy chain gives its name to the building, and 
imparts to it its sanctity. Its very touch has wrought 
many miracles. Filings from it have been sold at 
enormous prices, and have been set in rings, bracelets, 
and pins for kings and queens. Five devils flew out 
of the mouth of a man on being touched with it ; and, 
being broken in two, it became miraculously one again 
on being put into the hands of the Pope by St. He- 
lena ! And these miracles are splendidly commemo- 
rated by frescoes from the pencils of the best masters. 
And that wondrous chain is annually exhibited for the 
adoration of the faithful. Is not that chain a prodigy ? 
And beneath the church of St. Maria, in Via Lata, is 
the miraculous well, which sprung up for the baptism 
of those converted by Paul, and the very pillar to which 



150 MEN AND THINGS 

The pillar. Prayer to St. Gregory. 

he was bound, and the very chain that bound him to 
it! And that miraculous water is kept under lock 
and key, and is only exhibited to the faithful once a 
year ! On that pillar these words are deeply engraven, 
" Verbum Dei non est alligatumP 0, if that sen- 
tence was only engraved on the pillar which adorns 
the piazza of St. Peter's ! 

But what impressed me beyond any thing of the 
kind I saw in Rome, was a prayer offered by the faith- 
ful daily in the church of St. Gregory. There is among 
the priests great expectations as to the return of En- 
gland to the true faith, which the numerous defections 
there have greatly increased. And St. Gregory is the 
personage to whom they most look, and whose aid they 
most solicit to this end. And here is the prayer, cop- 
ied on the spot from a little board on which it is pasted, 
in Italian and English, for the use of the faithful : 

" adorable defender and propagator of the faith, St. 
Gregory, from thy seat of glory in heaven, behold how 
great a portion of the noblest British empire is with- 
out the pale of that holy faith, which through thy zeal 
it received of the sons of Saint Benedict, sent thither 
by thee ; and how other regions of this miserable world 
are in danger of losing this most precious of divine 
gifts. Through that most ardent charity which dur- 
ing life animated thee, obtain for that kingdom, from 
the Most High, the increase and diffusion of the Cath- 
olic faith ; and for us the grace that we may never 
waver in the true faith, which would be the most se- 
vere chastisement that could befall us for the punish- 
ment of our sins. Amen." 

Was ever a prayer offered to Jupiter by Romulus 
more purely pagan than this ? 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 151 

Popery a prodigy of falsehood. 

And were it necessary to adduce the old relics of 
St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, Santa Croce, the mirac- 
ulous bones, clothes, stones, and pictures that every- 
where abound, it would appear that Rome is at this 
hour more a city of prodigies than when Numa pre- 
sided in the state, or when the Pontifex Maximus of- 
fered sacrifices, or augurs predicted coming events 
from the entrails of animals or the flight of birds. 
Popery is a religion of prodigies, and is itself a prodigy 
of falsehood. To me it is a wonder how any sensible 
man can do otherwise than scornfully reject it. 



152 



MEN AND THINGS 



Rome to be studied. Its churchea . 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Rome to be studied.— Its numerous Churches.— Their Riches of Art 
and Endowment.— Numerous Priests and Nuns.— Poverty of the 
People.— Abounding Beggars.— Way to shake them off.— Absence 
of Youth.— The People in Fear.— Despotism, through the Confes- 
sional.— Its Morals.— No Religion there.— The Voice of Rome to 
the Nations. — Its History not yet ended. 

To an American and a Christian visiting Rome, all 
questions pertaining to its moral and social condition 
possess deep interest ; and they will receive a full ex- 
amination. Rome is the centre of Papal unity is 

the seat of the Pope and his court — is the Jerusalem 
of the Papist in all lands — is the point whence all the 
authority in the Papal Church proceeds, and whither 
all questions, of whatever character upon which the 
provinces are divided, return for solution. There is the 
fountain-head of infallibility, and where you would very 
naturally expect those model civil and social institutions 
to exist after which the Pope and his priests would 
fashion the world. And if the nations could only read 
in the light of history, and in the light of the present 
state of Rome and the Romans, the true, the legitimate 
influence of Popery wherever it gains the ascendant 
power, they would dread its establishment among them 
as they would the scourges of war, famine, and pesti- 
lence. 

Among the first things that impress you in Rome is 
the number and splendor of its churches. The people 
are about one hundred and fifty thousand all told, and 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 153 



Church accommodation. Endowed. Priests and nuns. 

there are said to be nearly four hundred churches. 
This would he a church for every four hundred inhab- 
itants. And when we consider that St. Peter's, St. 
John Lateran, St. Maria Maggiore, would contain many 
thousands, and that even the smaller churches would 
contain from one to three thousand, we will readily ad- 
mit that there is a superabundance of church accom- 
modation. 

And these churches are all richly, many of them mag- 
nificently embellished. There is a wealth of art in its 
churches, almost if not quite sufficient to pay the debt 
of the English nation. And these churches, with their 
cardinals, archbishops, bishops, chapters, and priests, 
are utterly independent of the people ; they are all rich- 
ly, some of them royally endowed. 

Another of the striking peculiarities of Rome is the 
number of its priests and nuns. There are upward 
of two thousand nuns, and about three thousand priests ; 
making a due allowance for children, there is a priest 
for every twenty-five adults ! And, taken as a class, 
they are the best-looking, best-dressed, best-fed men 
you meet ; and if they are not perfectly satisfied with 
their condition, their stately tread, their self-complacent 
air, bear false witness against them. The Pope lives 
in regal style. The cardinals, with their horses, serv- 
ants, carriages all in scarlet, live and move as princes. 
They are the princes of the Church and of the Roman 
state. The bishops live sumptuously ; and even the 
mendicant monks are as fat and greasy as is desirable. 
And such is the number of these priests that you meet 
them every where ; and when a noted service is to be 
performed, they are there in dozens as actors. If priests 
G2 



154 MEN AND THINGS 

Priests make no paradise. Beggars. Way to drive them off. 

of every class and character, in numbers entirely sat- 
isfactory, and wielding all power, could civilize, enlight- 
en, and Christianize a place, then, in every desirable 
respect, Rome would be an earthly paradise. 

But in striking contrast with the sumptuousness of 
their churches, their riches of art, and the wealth of 
the priests, is the poverty and wretchedness of the peo- 
ple. Beggars meet you every where — in the streets, 
at the doors of cafes and shops, at the doors of churches, 
amid the ruins of the Forum and the Coliseum, and 
even under the very dome of St. Peter's. "While lean- 
ing over the "confessional" and admiring the kneel- 
ing Pope, by Canova, a mutilated beggar gave me a 
gentle hint, by politely pulling the tail of my coat, that 
charity should be exercised under the shadow of the 
high altar, and in the very presence of the holy relics 
of Peter and Paul ! All points of interest which attract 
strangers have also peculiar attraction for beggars. 
They annoy you every where, and are shaken off with 
difficulty. An English gentleman, the companion of 
many a ramble, I found, by a stamp of his foot and the 
utterance of certain sounds, could send them off at once. 
After witnessing his tact frequently, and after calling 
him a few times to my aid, I asked him what he said. 
"I do not know," he said, laughingly; "I but strive 
to imitate the action and words of a priest before whom 
I saw the beggars flee, the other day, in the Corso." 
We appealed to our valet for the interpretation, who 
said they meant " Go to the d — ." No wonder the poor 
creatures so hastily concluded that the person who could 
send them so far beyond Purgatory would give them 
neither a paul nor a penny. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 155 

Joyous youth missed. No liberty. No morals. 

You also miss from the streets and promenades of 
Rome the joyous youth, ranging from fourteen to twen- 
ty-five, which you meet every where in Britain and 
France ; and the people you do meet seem dull and 
joyless. They seem to walk in dread of an omnipres- 
ent enemy. And instead of bowing to the priests that 
are evermore flitting along with shovel-hats and robes 
indicating their order, they dart on them a furtive 
glance, and give a meaning shake of the head when 
they are past. You need only walk the streets, en- 
ter the shops, and read the countenances of the people, 
to know that the Romans feel and dread the rod of the 
oppressor. 

Nor is there any liberty in Rome. Every family is 
under a priestly spy : through the confessional and the 
women the priest gets the secrets of the family, its vis- 
itors, the opinions of fathers and sons; and often, on 
the confessions of mothers and daughters, husbands and 
brothers are immured in prisons, or sentenced to the 
galleys. A gentleman, for years a resident of the city, 
informed me that the despotism of the worst emperors 
was no more severe than that now exercised under the 
sanction of Pio Nono. Rome, Naples, Austria, par ex- 
cellence Papal states, and yet the culminating points 
of despotism ! 

Nor are there any true morals in Rome. How could 
there be with such an army of lazy priests, and with 
such a swarm of French soldiers ? The last Pope has 
left several heirs : the present one has a good public 
character ; but as to the cardinals and priests, it is 
notorious that they are only forbidden to marry. The 
noblest of the Romans say that, because of the utter 



156 MEN AND THINGS 

Effects of the confessional. No religion. No Sabbath. 

profligacy of the priests and their arts at the confes- 
sional, they have no confidence in the virtue of their 
wives, mothers, sisters, or daughters ! If such is the 
puhlic and general character of the priests, what must 
be that of the people ? Indeed, I could not place be- 
fore my readers the statements made, and by the very 
best witnesses, for the purpose of illustrating the low 
point to which morals have fallen in Rome, and through 
the profligacy of the clergy, from the Pope down to the 
miserable mendicant friar, whose character is often 
more filthy than his feet or his frock. 

Nor is there any religion in Rome. There is super- 
stition there as rife as in the days when Jupiter and 
Venus were worshiped ; but, as a rule, the religion of 
Christ is unknown and unpracticed. I spent a Sab- 
bath there ; and as there was no Protestant worship 
save that of the Puseyitish stamp without the walls, 
and as I prefer the reality to the bungling imitation, I 
went to St. Peter's, and other churches. The markets 
and shops were more crowded than usual. The priests 
were seen every where trading. Peasants from beyond 
the walls, in every variety of costume, were in the 
streets. The Sistine was crowded mostly by strangers 
to see the Pope at mass amid the glittering swords of 
the "guard noble ;" but St. Peter's was almost desert- 
ed, as were the other churches that I visited. There 
is no Sabbath in Rome — there is no Bible influence in 
Rome ; the common people scarcely know it by name 
— there is no preaching of the G-ospel in Rome — there 
is no instruction of the young into the principles of 
Divine truth. Their religious literature is a compila- 
tion of lying legends, of which the wonders of Bam- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 157 

Religious literature. True picture. Priestly power. 

bino and of the Holy House of Loretto are good sam- 
ples; and priests and people are living without hope 
and without God in the world. I have not a doubt but 
that the priests are mainly infidels ; and that the peo- 
ple, who are not like the priests, are mainly idolaters, 
from whose minds all ideas of Grod and of Christ are 
crowded out by fictions concerning Peter, pictures, holy 
relics and places, fables of the saints, and, more than 
all and above all, by Mary and Bambino. 

Some may say this picture is overdrawn ; but it is 
not even one half to the reality. So all will say who 
have spent a month in Rome truly desirous to know its 
social and moral state. Your liberty, your property, 
your life, hang suspended upon the will of priests, who 
are at once ignorant, superstitious, rapacious, and prof- 
ligate, who feel that they have a divine warrant to flay 
or fleece you as they will, and who yield to no impulse 
save that which tends to strengthen their claims and 
to extend their dominion. And these Romish priests 
form the great central power of the Papal Church. 
They make, or unmake, bishops and archbishops ; and 
they send out decrees binding upon all their people, 
and as unchangeable as the laws of the Medes, which 
give direction and form to the movements and opinions 
of all their priests to the ends of the earth. And could 
these priests have their way, they would lay the na- 
tions, chained and debased, as lowly at the feet of the 
Pope and his cardinals as the once imperial city of the 
Cgesars now lies. From its crowded prisons, and its be- 
trayed people, and its banished patriots, and its Christ- 
less churches — from its noiseless streets, and the ruins 
which crowd its ancient hills, and its men afraid to 



158 MEN AND THINGS 

Voice of warning. Rome's history not ended. 

lisp their opinions to their wives or daughters, a voice 
rises for the warning of the nations, saying, " The price 

OF YOUR CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IS ETERNAL VIGI- 
LANCE of Popery." 

The history of Rome is not ended. It is yet the 
seat of empire in opposition to the kingdom of Grod. It 
is the centre of a spiritual power felt for evil to the 
ends of the earth. Let that power be scattered, and its 
prestige is gone — let it be rendered subservient to truth, 
and the world would feel its renovating effects, (rod 
has his eye upon Rome, and, priest-ridden and down- 
trodden as it is, will make it subservient to some glo- 
rious end. For Popery there is nothing in reserve but 
destruction ; like a leprous Jewish house, it must be 
torn down. But moral conquests may yet be obtained 
on the banks of the muddy Tiber which will throw 
those of all the Caesars into the shade. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 159 

Exit from Rome. Procession. Melancholy. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Leaving Rome. — A Procession of the Host. — The Aurelian Way. — 
Civita Vecchia. — Genoa from the Sea. — The City. — Columbus. — 
Political History. — Duomo. — Head of John the Baptist. — Sacro Ca- 
tino. — Santa Maria. — An Evening Ramble. — Scenes in the Streets. 
— Female Dress. — Tastes differ. 

The time had come for our departure from Rome. 
As we wound our way through the narrow and dirty- 
streets toward the bridge St. Angelo, we met a proces- 
sion carrying the host to a dying man. Our carriage 
stopped, and our postillions uncovered, as did all the 
people in the street. A guard of soldiers went before 
it with drawn swords ; a priest gorgeously arrayed 
carried it, followed by one of those hideous processions 
made up of persons wrapped up in a sheet with holes 
made only for their eyes ; another guard of soldiers 
brought up the rear! Nothing but its stupendous 
wickedness can surpass its stupendous folly and gross 
superstition. We crossed the noble bridge, filed to the 
left in front of the castle of St. Angelo, passed by the 
Via S. Spirito, under the walls of St. Peter's, and by 
the Fabrician Grate made our exit from the City of 
the Popes. And as the magnificent dome of St. Angelo 
died away in the distance, and the gathering shades of 
evening hid one object after another from our view, we 
yielded to a feeling of melancholy, suggested by the 
reflection that we had taken our last view of the ruins, 
the splendor, the wretchedness, and the superstition 



160 MEN AND THINGS 

Night ride. Civita Vtcchia. Genoa. 

of the most historic, the most superstitious, the most 
dilapidated, the worst governed city on the globe. It 
is pleasant to visit Rome ; it would be horrible to live 
there. 

We left Rome about seven o'clock in the evening, 
and after trundling all night over the old Aurelian Way, 
and through as desolate a country as could be desired, 
so far as we could see it by the light of a full moon, 
we found ourselves entering the ponderous gates of 
Civita Yecchia at five in the morning. This is the 
sea-port of Rome, and is in every respect as contempti- 
ble as it has been represented. Soldiers, priests, beg- 
gars, here swarm as they do every where in Italy. 
Why is it that these always abound together ? We 
took a walk around the city — through the market, its 
churches, and around its fortifications. Nothing im- 
pressed us. It was on the balcony of a hotel here, over- 
looking the square, that an Italian denounced to me 
the priests and soldiers sauntering below, in thoughts 
that breathed and words that burned. The steamer 
from Naples soon made her appearance, and we were 
soon away for Grenoa. 

Grenoa looks magnificently from the sea. It lies at 
the base of a broken range of hills gracefully sloping to 
the water, and whose sides are dotted with gay sub- 
urban palaces almost to the very summit. Its streets 
are very narrow, exceedingly up and down, in many 
places inaccessible to carriages, and several of them 
are lined with palaces. Indeed, it is called " the City 
of Palaces." But while we by no means admired it 
to the extent we expected and intended, it is a city of 
deep interest to a traveler from America. It was here 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 161 

Columbus. Political history. Now rising. 

that Columbus was born, the discoverer of the Western 
"World. The son of a poor wool-comber, he soon devel- 
oped an irresistible passion for the sea. At the age of 
fourteen he commenced navigating these waters, and 
when he had passed but a little beyond his fiftieth 
year, he gave rise to a new era hx the history of our 
race by the discovery of America. And yet little is 
known here of the man, who, in the estimation of the 
civilized world, is one of the great arid chief benefactors 
of mankind. He bequeathed a few manuscripts to the 
city — these are venerated as relics, and that is all ! 
I asked for the place where the wool-comber lived, but 
none could tell me. 

The political history of Grenoa makes it also inter- 
esting to an American. After the downfall of the em- 
pire of Charlemagne, it became a republic, and famous 
for its maritime enterprise. The conflicts between it 
and Venice are known of all men. But although often 
torn by fearful internal dissensions, and often con- 
quered by foreign powers, and now a part and parcel 
of the kingdom of Sardinia, its old love of liberty has 
never been extinguished. It is now the house of ref- 
uge for the banished patriots of Lower Italy ; and while 
the cities of the Pope and of the King of Naples are rap- 
idly declining, this is rapidly rising, and looks more 
like an American city as to the shipping in the harbor, 
the bustle on the quays, and the warehouses erecting, 
than any other we have seen on the Mediterranean. 

Grenoa is a Papal city, while the law secures the 
rights of conscience to all. The priests and churches 
are very numerous, but the priests walk not as proudly, 
nor are the churches as gorgeous, as in Central Italy. 



162 MEN AND THINGS 

St. Lorenzo. Sacred relics. Sacro Catino. 

The Duomo or Cathedral of St. Lorenzo is a singular 
affair, different in its architecture from any we saw. 
In its friezes, are inscriptions which narrate that the 
city was founded by a grandson of Noah, and that 
James II., prince of Troy, took possession of it ! Priests 
have a remarkably fine genius for making history. 
Here also is a neat chapel, which no woman is per- 
mitted to enter, beneath whose altar is a chest con- 
taining the head of St. John the Baptist ! Women 
were excluded by Pope Innocent VIII. from this sacred 
chapel in vengeance upon Herodias. Why were not 
men also excluded in vengeance upon the executioner ? 
We were only permitted to see the chest — we dare not 
look with Protestant eyes upon the holy head ! How 
many heads the preacher in the wilderness must have 
had ! Here also is a miraculous painting, by Luke, of 
Mary and Bambino. If Luke painted all the pictures 
ascribed to him, we see not how he got time to write 
his Grospel or to say his prayers. One thing is certain, 
he was a very miserable artist. But, above all, here is 
the wonderful Sacro Catino, a precious dish said to 
have been given by the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, to 
have held the Paschal Lamb at the Last Slipper, and 
to be the very cup in which Joseph of Arimathea 
caught the blood flowing from the wounds of the Sav- 
ior on the cross ! Three times a year is this Catino 
brought out, amid an array of priestly magnificence, 
for the veneration and adoration of the faithful. It is 
a glass cup brought from Palestine by the Crusaders, 
and pious priests have made its history. It was once 
taken to Paris, where it was broken ; but the pieces 
were put together with gold, which made it the more 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 163 

Offer declined. A view. Evening walk. 

valuable. The priests offered to show us the sacred 
relic for five francs a head, but not considering the 
gross humbug worth the price, we declined the bar- 
gain. 

From St. Lorenzo, we clambered up a high hill, on 
which is situated the church of Santa Maria di Carig- 
nano, and wound our way up to the very summit of 
its superb cupola. The city, the harbor, the sea, lay 
beneath us, and the magnificent environs lay around 
and above us. The view is neither grand nor extend- 
ed, but Italy presents none more beautiful. 

In the cool of the day, we sallied out to see and hear 
what we could. "We entered every church we met, 
and it was the same old story — beggars at the door — 
a few women inside — priests — altars — pictures, some 
good, some not — the same monotonous mumbling of 
the mass, and here and there an old man praying be- 
fore crosses and pictures. Recognized as strangers, 
we were assailed by beggars at every corner, among 
whom was a fair sprinkling of shaven crowns, with 
dirty monkish garbs. And to see priests, peasants, 
and women stopping in the midst of their prayers, 
talking and laughing, and then starting on again 
without ever changing their kneeling position — the 
whole thing reveals a heartlessness which can not be 
described to those who have never witnessed it. The 
Rev. Mr. L., of Massachusetts, just returning from a 
visit to the East, was one of the company. He stated 
that the Greek Church in the East was even worse 
than the Church in Italy ; and that if in Jerusalem he 
must be one or the other, he would prefer being a 
Mohammedan to a Christian after the Greek or Roman 



164 MEN AND THINGS 

Turk and Papist. Ladies of Genoa. Good substitute. 

stamp ; that the Turk held and practiced more of the 
truths of the Bible, than did the one or the other ! 
How can the Turks he converted to Popery ? 

The streets were crowded with people, and mounte- 
banks were playing in every direction, and some of 
them performing wonderful feats. We were impressed 
strongly with the beauty and the dress of the females. 
Light in frame, with dark hair and eyes, and finely 
proportioned, they seemed, in the gloaming of the day, 
rather to float than to walk before you. They wear 
no bonnets — a bonnet is a sure sign of a foreigner. 
Their dress consists of a piece of muslin folded across 
the top of the head, and elegantly pinned to the hair, 
and gracefully falling around the neck and over the 
shoulders in the form of a shawl. Their ear-rings are 
usually large and elegant. Their countenances are 
brilliant and expressive, and although singular in dress 
and appearance, you remember only their taste and 
elegance. We saw no female dress in Europe that we 
desired to see introduced into our country, save that 
of the ladies of G-enoa. On the evening of a warm 
summer's day, it would be cool, modest, and exceed- 
ingly graceful. They would be an excellent substitute 
for those excuses for bonnets which hang upon the rear 
of a lady's head, or for that enormously ugly superflu- 
ity of Leghorn under which they sometimes walk, 
which keeps all companions at a respectful distance, 
and which flaps in the wind like an umbrella from 
which the whalebone had been taken away. Hideous 
affairs ! Tastes, how various ! Fashion, what a tyrant ! 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 165 

Exit from Genoa. Guardian goddess. Inventions. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Departure from Genoa. — A Procession. — The Goddess of the City.— 
Primitive Work. — Ascent of the Apennines. — Descent. — Degraded 
Woman. — Novi. — Great Valley, and fertile. — Alessandria. — Ma- 
rengo : its Battle. — Dessaix. — Austria. — Haynau an Incarnation of 
Austria. — Enter Turin. — An Incident. 

In leaving the city for Turin, we had an enchanting 
view of Grenoa and its harbor. On our way out we 
passed one of those horrible funeral processions, such 
as we had met in Naples and Rome, in which persons 
are covered with sheets, with holes only for their eyes ! 
As we passed through the gate of the strong wall that 
guards the city, we turned back to read the inscription 
over it, from which we learned that " The most blessed 
Virgin" is its guardian goddess ! Soon we came to a 
point where we took our last view of the Mediterranean, 
and turned into a valley of beautiful cultivation, and 
pursued our way to the foot of the Apennines. The 
day was hot and the road dusty, and it was quite 
primitive and refreshing to see men scattering water 
on the highways with shovels from the little streamlets 
that flowed on either side of them ! No ideas of labor- 
saving machinery have yet reached Italy, save those 
which pertain to the doing up of confessions, and for- 
giving sins, and getting money. In inventions for 
these purposes, it leads the world. 

"We ascended the Apennines by a winding road of 
stupendous workmanship, which is at no point steep, 



166 MEN AND THINGS 

Ascending the Apennines. Descending. Women at work. 

although it winds up a mountain which seems to pos- 
sess no more inclination from a straight line than does 
the leaning tower of Pisa. As we looked up we could 
see nothing hut wall ahove wall, and arch above arch, 
as high as the eye could reach ; and yet, drawn by 
twelve horses driven and ridden by quite a guard of 
postillions, we ascended in full trot to the summit; 
and as we looked down, we could see carriages and 
men as pigmies in the profound depths below ! On 
the very summit of the mountain, where nothing but 
monks and goats can live, we found a monastery whose 
bell was tolling as we passed it. The sound recalled 
far distant lands, and a well-remembered house of 
prayer, and a beloved people accustomed to repair to 
the sanctuary at the call of the church-going bell ! 
We thought, silently prayed, and passed on. And if 
we went up the Apennines in a full trot, how can I 
describe the manner we went down it ? A full gallop 
does not express it as we felt it. And amid clouds of 
dust, the jabbering of postillions, the baying of dogs 
at our John Gilpin career, we traveled down, and on 
to Novi. 

They were tunneling the Apennines for a railway 
from Turin to Grenoa, which, when completed, will be 
a great affair for Sardinia. And armies of women were 
engaged in making these tunnels ! With a pannier 
of peculiar construction, made to fit the back, they en- 
tered the tunnel at one side, and emerged, laded, on 
the other side ; bent down like beasts of burden, they 
followed each other in rows to the end of the embank- 
ment, where each turned round ; there a man drew a 
pin which let the bottom fall out, and the stone, gravel, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 167 

Female degradation. Novi. Alessandria. 

or clay fell out of the basket ! And hundreds of wom- 
en were working in this way at this bestial employ- 
ment ! Lime-kilns, in great number, line the road ; 
and the women were quarrying the stones, carrying 
them to the kilns, and sending away the lime ! Wheth- 
er these women were convicts, or the wives and daugh- 
ters of the peasants, I know not ; but they wore no 
criminal badge. This was the lowest state of female 
degradation I ever beheld. Can the world furnish a 
lower ? And in these parts of Sardinia there are no 
"godless schools" to vex the priests or to pervert the 
people. 

Out of the large cities, the inns of Italy are wretched. 
We dined at Novi, and spent some hours there waiting 
the cars. The people looked extremely poor, and the 
town extremely dirty. All the memorial I find in my 
journal in reference to this place is, "At Novi we dined 
at the table d'hote, and most filthy it was." Here 
we took the railway, and found it a most pleasant 
change from the diligence in which we came rushing 
down the Apennines like an avalanche. We flew over 
a plain of boundless extent, level as our salt meadows 
or Western prairies, reaching from the Apennines to 
the Alps, crowded with villages under magnificent cul- 
tivation, and irrigated from both ranges. We were 
informed that by means of irrigation three crops are 
annually raised on this plain. In the midst of it stands 
the city of Alessandria, which has a history. This 
city is near the junction of the Tanaro and Bormido, 
and the country around is often overflown by these 
rivers, and may be overflown by them at any time 
when necessary. It was this fact which led to its se- 



168 MEN AND THINGS 

Pope Alexander. Battle of Marengo. 

lection for a fortress in the days of the Gruelfs and 
the Grhibellines. It was called Alessandria after Pope 
Alexander of blessed memory, who, it is said, placed his 
foot upon the neck of the Emperor Frederic, appropri- 
ating and quoting the text, " Thou shalt tread upon 
the lion and the adder." The Emperor answered, " Not 
to you, but to Peter ;" the Pope replied, " To me, and 
to Peter." But the great interest of this place to the 
modern traveler is, that the famous battle of Marengo 
was fought in its vicinity, one of the great battles of 
Napoleon. On that extended plain, on the 13th of 
June, 1800, met the Austrians under Melas, forty thou- 
sand strong, and the French under Napoleon, number- 
ing only twenty thousand. The battle was protracted 
and desperate. The French ranks broke, and were re- 
treating, when Dessaix appeared in the distance. Rid- 
ing up to Bonaparte, he said, "I think this a battle 
lost." " I think it a battle won," was the reply. 
Thinking they were masters of the field, the Austrians 
relaxed their exertions, and gave way to the most clam- 
orous joy ; when Napoleon, returning upon them unex- 
pectedly, drove all before him. Hundreds were slain — 
thousands were taken prisoners. The Bormido was 
bridged with the dead bodies of horses and men, and 
rolled red with their blood. And there, under our eyes, 
lay the extended plain, bearing the most luxuriant 
crops, where this fearful conflict took place; and all, 
save the massive fortifications of the city, looked as 
calmly and as quietly as if " the battle of the warrior 
with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood," 
had never been there fought. The way in which the 
Little Corporal gained this battle would almost induce 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 169 

Dessaix. Bloody Austria. Approaching the Alps. 

the belief that the stars in their courses fought with 
him. Never was he so near losing a battle that he did 
not lose, and rarely did he gain so complete a victory. 
But it was gained at the expense of the life of the gal- 
lant and generous Dessaix, to whom even the Egyptians 
gave the name of the Just Sultan, who fell by a can- 
non-ball just as the shouts of victory rose from the 
ranks of the French. His body was embalmed and 
carried to the hospitium on the St. Bernard, where 
stands a monument erected to his memory. Another 
was erected to him on the plain of Marengo, which was 
destroyed by the Austrians in 1814. Will Austria ever 
do a noble act ? It is essentially a nation of savages, 
and should be so regarded and treated. Its history is 
a disgrace to the civilization of Europe. I can not 
otherwise regard the human butcher Haynau than as 
Austria incarnate. It would seem as if the highest 
welfare of our race, and especially the true social re- 
generation of Europe, require that it should be broken 
to pieces as a potter's vessel. 

From Alessandria we proceeded onward toward Tu- 
rin. Soon the Alps, which lay all day in dim outline 
propping the sky, became clearly visible. As the in- 
tense glare of the sun faded away on the approach of 
evening, they became clearly denned. As we approach- 
ed them the oppressive heat of the day gave way to a 
chilly atmosphere, which rendered an overcoat quite 
comfortable. As the dusk of the evening fell around 
us, we crossed the Po, and under the dazzling glare of 
snow-clad mountains, on which a bright, full, cloudless 
moon was shining, we entered the city of Turin, and 
soon found ourselves comfortably located in the Hotel 

H 



170 MEN AND THINGS 

Fellow-travelers. Bold attack. Bluster. 

l'Europe. We were now in the beautiful capital of 
the kingdom of Sardinia. 

At a station between Alessandria and Turin, two 
brawny yet well dressed Italians came, jostling each 
other, into our car. Soon they commenced an excited 
conversation, which became an intense scold. There 
would be an occasional lull, but they would commence 
again with increased fury. We expected a fight ; but 
it was all words, and the less interesting because we 
could not understand them. My traveling friend had 
a severe headache, which was not made better by the 
noise of our neighbors ; and when suffering was no 
longer a virtue, he jumped convulsively to his feet, and 
poured such a torrent of indignation in English upon 
them as perfectly astounded them. Napoleon at Ma- 
rengo made no more bold or sudden attack! They 
looked at my friend, and, after exchanging an indig- 
nant glance at one another, the war ceased. Not an- 
other word did they utter. Soon one of them left us ; 
the other accompanied us to Turin, and was quite at- 
tentive to us when we reached the station there. And 
when in our subsequent wanderings we met with any 
thing unpleasant, I frequently advised my friend to try 
the virtue of a bluster in English. Judging by the 
effect on this occasion, our language must possess great 
energy to those who do not understand it. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 171 

Turin. Situation. Collina. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Turin. — Beautiful for Situation. — No Antiquities. — Growing rapidly. 
— Charles Albert deceived. — His Death. — Room in the Palace. — 
Spirit of the present King. — Opposed by the Priests. — Legislature 
of Turin. — Senate and House. — Our Charge at Turin. — Santo Su- 
dario. — Worship with the Waldenses : their Chapel. — A Royal Peo- 
ple : their Doctrines and Order. — Turin a strong Point from which 
to act on Italy. 

Turin is a beautiful city, the most grandly situated 
of any inland capital in Europe. It has no suburbs, 
and you enter at once from a perfect country into the 
streets of a beautiful city. The transition seems like 
magic. Through the perspective of the streets, which 
are wide, and cross each other at right angles, the hills, 
the mountains, the Alps, which surround the city, are 
constantly in view. There, on the one side, is Monte 
Cenis and Monte Yiso, clothed in perpetual snow, calm- 
ly looking down upon you, and cooling even the noon- 
day heat by their cold breath; and on the other flows 
the classic Po, a deep and rapid river. Beyond the 
Po, and immediately fronting the city, rises the Collina, 
a beautiful range of hills sloping to the river, and 
sparkling with beautiful villas to its very summit. At 
a short distance from the city, and as part of the Col- 
lina, rises Moncalieri, which is surmounted by a royal 
palace, the favorite country residence of the present 
royal family. Indeed, every beauty which can be af- 
forded by wood, water, mountain, and plain ; by city 



172 MEN AND THINGS 

No history. Prosperity. Charles Albert, 
v 

and country ; by a most luxuriant vegetation in the 
presence of eternal snows, are combined in the neigh- 
borhood of Turin ! "We doubt whether it is equaled by 
any inland city of the world for beauty of situation. 

Turin, unlike Naples, Rome, and Grenoa, has but 
few historic associations. It has almost no antiques, 
classical or mediaeval, so frequently has it been rav- 
aged by the surrounding powers, which have so fre- 
quently contended for it. Now the capital of the 
kingdom of Sardinia, almost the only constitutional 
government in continental Europe, it is growing almost 
with the rapidity of an American city. The perse- 
cuted Christians and patriots of Central and Southern 
Italy flock there for protection ; and as they bring 
with them property, intelligence, industry, and a love 
of liberty, the city is rapidly rising. New streets are 
making, and blocks of houses are there rising, as in 
the city of New York. The appearance of every thing 
around you makes you feel that you have passed be- 
yond the blasting, crushing influence of the priest, 
and that you are among a people strongly imbued with 
the principles of liberty and Protestantism. And so 
you are. 

The recent King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, headed, 
in 1848 and 1849, what was called the Italian League, 
whose object was to combine the various states of Italy 
into an Italian empire. Lombardy, Naples (and per- 
haps the States of the Church), entered cordially into 
the League ; but bloody Austria opposed, and declared 
war against it. Lombardy and Naples treacherously 
withheld the forces promised, and Charles Albert was 
defeated. He resigned his throne to his son on the 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 173 

His room. Noble son. Cenobites. 

field of battle, and retired to Spain, where he died of a 
broken heart. And there, in a room in the palace, is 
the bed on which he died, and the furniture of the 
room in which his broken heart ceased its pulsations ; 
and but few moderate American farmers would con- 
sider the bed or furniture too sumptuous for their own 
sleeping apartments. The son, into whose hands he 
surrendered the government, now reigns in Turin, with 
more than the feelings of his father glowing in his soul. 
He is dead against Austria — is the friend of civil and 
religious liberty — maintains the Constitution granted 
by his father with vigor — is hated by the old despot- 
isms around him, whose ministers at his court are 
spies on his conduct ; and is yet destined to act a con- 
spicuous part in the affairs of Italy. So resolute is he 
in maintaining his position, that he openly declares 
that the power which prostrates the constitutional lib- 
erty of his people must first march over his lifeless 
corpse. Of course, this is wormwood and gall to the 
priests, whose instincts are all for despotism and dark- 
ness. They have opposed in every way the progress 
of free institutions in Piedmont, and, as a reward for 
their opposition, some of their bishops are in banish- 
ment, and they are all hated at home. The world is 
rapidly learning that the great object and aim of Popery 
is to maintain the power and dominion of the priest. 
The Romish priesthood is a corporation of cenobites, 
closely compacted and bound together by the strong 
ties of self-interest, whose object is to retain and main- 
tain, and transmit their corporate power by all and by 
any means. 

The Senate and House of Deputies, modeled after 



174 MEN AND THINGS 

Parliament. Its members. Sabbath in Turin. 

the British House of Lords and Commons, were in 
session in Turin. This is the only legislative body in 
Italy ! The Senate is appointed by the king and his 
ministers ; the Delegates are elected by the people. 
And their laws are laws. "With cautious but steady 
progress, they are reforming old abuses, laying aside 
old feudal institutions, and laying a deep and broad 
foundation for a political and social fabric like unto 
that of England. There is a strong democratic element 
in the House of Deputies, whose leaders are its best 
orators. Never did we see a more nobly-developed 
company of men assembled, or, to appearance, more 
intelligent or gentlemanly, than the Senate of Sardinia ; 
and the House of Deputies was as sedate and orderly, 
as was that of France, as I have already described it, 
disorderly and turbulent. We were rejoiced to find 
that at such a formative and critical period in its his- 
tory our government was there represented by the Hon- 
orable William B. Kinney, a gentleman every way com- 
petent to discharge the high duties of his mission. We 
have reason to know that he is in high favor with the 
court, and with the noble men who are seeking to for- 
tify the free institutions of their country. His mission 
to Turin will not be in vain. 

We spent a Sabbath in this city which will not 
soon be forgotten. Drums were beating, and soldiers 
marching in all directions in the morning. About ten 
o'clock we went to the Cathedral, not to hear or see 
mass, of which we had seen and heard enough for a 
thousand years, nor yet so much to see the royal fam- 
ily, which was there, as to visit the chapel of the Santo 
Sudario, the priestly glory of Turin. But what is the 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 175 

Santo Sudario. Its history. Waldensian chapel. 

Santo Sudario ? It is nothing less than one of the 
three folds of the shroud in which Joseph of Arimathea 
wrapped the body of Jesus ! and which to this hour 
hears the impress of his body ! The other two folds 
are at Rome and Besancon. This wonderfully sacred 
relic was discovered during the Crusades — was first 
deposited in Chambery ; but was sent to Turin to en- 
able St. Borromeo to venerate it without the trouble 
of crossing the Alps ! It seems they never returned it. 
And there is its magnificent chapel in the Duomo, 
where the old rag is exhibited for the veneration of 
the people on great occasions ! By what language can 
we sufficiently stigmatize the base conduct of a priest- 
hood which will practice such outrageous fraud on an 
ignorant and confiding people ! 

From the splendid chapel which takes its name 
from that old rag, and where but few save the ragged 
were present, we went to the Waldensian chapel, of 
which the Rev. Mr. Bert is pastor. We had previously 
formed an acquaintance at the table of our charge 
with this excellent and interesting man. His chapel 
is built in the centre of a square surrounded on all 
sides by houses, and which is entered by a large gate- 
way. It is perfectly plain, externally and internally. 
The pulpit is high, with a sounding-board. The pews 
are made of benches, and texts of Scripture in large 
letters are written on all the walls, and meet the eye 
wherever it turns. how strongly this contrasted 
with the images, and pictures, and the Sudario we had 
just left ! The minister, in gown and bands, entered 
the pulpit, read the Scriptures, and read a very short 
form of prayer, without any change of position, which 



176 MEN AND THINGS 

The service. Royal people. Their order. 

was standing. They sung chants from a hook in which 
the words and music were printed together, accom- 
panied hy a small organ. Save in the reading of a 
form of prayer at the opening, the entire service was 
conducted as in our Presbyterian churches. The peo- 
ple seemed mostly, from their dress, of the humbler 
class, yet they seemed intelligent and devout. Their 
attention was marked through the entire service. 

And are these, said I, at the close of the service, the 
descendants of the "Waldenses, who have kept the lamp 
of truth burning in these Alpine valleys from the re- 
motest ages of Christianity ? Are these simple people 
the children of the Vaudois, that bribery could not cor- 
rupt — that war could not exterminate — that persecu- 
tion could not wean from the faith of Christ — and that, 
like their own Alps, have withstood the storms raised 
for their destruction ? Yes, these plain rustic people 
are their descendants ; and I felt that I was in the 
presence of a royal race ! What a green oasis amid 
the desolate Sahara of Popery is that Waldensian 
church at Turin ! Although I could but very imper- 
fectly follow in the worship which was there performed 
in French, yet as it was the first Protestant service I 
had attended for weeks, it was to me like a river of 
water in the wilderness, like the shadow of a great 
rock in a weary land ! 

I sought from Pastor Bert minute information as to 
their doctrine, their discipline, and their present state. 
In doctrine and discipline they are essentially Presby- 
terian ; maintaining the doctrines of grace, infant con- 
secration, the parity of the clergy, and government by 
Church courts. And at no period of their recent his- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 177 

Present state. The field open. Strong post. 

tory have they been as flourishing as at present. On 
one of the new and finest streets of the city they were 
making arrangements to put up a noble edifice for the 
worship of (rod, amid the most dire opposition of the 
priests. Their numbers and wealth are greatly in- 
creased by the persecutions of Lombardy, Rome, and 
Naples ; and with a full liberty of worship and of 
preaching the truth as it is in Jesus, they have an 
open field, and are seeking to cultivate it. Turin is 
just the place on which to plant our lever for the ele- 
vation and regeneration of Italy. It is an Italian city ; 
there full religious liberty is secured ; and there is an 
ancient, apostolical, evangelical, uncorrupted Church, 
fully, compactly, strongly organized, and cemented by 
the blood of martyrs and the persecutions of ages. Were 
Napoleon Bonaparte now alive, and did it offer the 
same advantages as a military post which it now does 
as a religious, he would send fifty thousand men across 
the Alps to occupy it. 

H2 



178 MEN AND THINGS 

Departure. The Sabbath. Fine views. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Departure from Turin. — Ascent of the Alps. — Changes in Vegetation. 
— A Stream from the Clouds. — Going down the Alps. — Our Fel- 
low-travelers : their Testimony as to Rome. — Chambery. — Les 
Charmettes. — Priests abound. — Holy Hill. — Praying in a Hurry. — 
To Geneva. — First View.— Obvious Difference. — Friends in a far 
Country. 

We took our departure from Turin with the most 
pleasant impressions as to the city, the government, and 
the people. The priests were fewer than we had met 
in any Italian city, which may partly account for the 
fact that we saw no beggars there. But there is no 
Sabbath there. The people are in form Papists ; some 
go to mass in the morning — all ride or stroll about in 
the afternoon— and all places of amusement are open 
in the evening, which are usually thronged. Such is 
the effect of Popery every where. In a fine coach we 
were soon beyond the city lines, and on the magnificent 
road to Chambery, along which on either side flowed 
a little streamlet for the purposes of irrigation. The 
city was behind us — the Superga, a church crowning 
the highest point of the Collina, and in which the royal 
family is buried, was on one side of us ; and the Alps, 
with their snow-clad summits, formed a crescent be- 
fore us. The air was hot — the valley was laden with 
a rich harvest ; the hay and the grain was every where 
in the process of collection, and yet the snows of win- 
ter glittered upon all the mountains ! As we entered 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 179 

Changes. Ascent. An assault. 

the gorges of the Alps, the scenery became hold and 
grand beyond description ; the air became cool, then 
cold, then colder, and by twelve at night we breathed 
the air of December, and in the region of eternal snows ! 
What a transition in the brief space of about six hours ! 
We ascended the steep mountains, over which, when 
viewed from below, it would seem impossible for a 
bird to fly, by a cork-screw road of astonishing forma- 
tion, up which the horses trotted all the way ! We 
passed from a mid-summer to a mid-winter climate, 
witnessing the corresponding changes of vegetation all 
the way. On the plains of the Po they were collecting 
a rich harvest. Soon we saw the grain in the green 
ear — soon in the blade, and higher up the farmer was 
planting. Soon the grape gave way to the pine of 
stunted growth, and soon every thing gave way to the 
barren rock and to eternal snow. The moon was full 
and cloudless, and so brilliant was its shining, that 
through all the watches of the night we could see 

" Hills o'er hills, and Alps o'er Alps arise." 
As we turned a certain curve in the road there towered 
a hill, at least a thousand feet above us, and from its 
very summit there came dashing a stream of water, 
which floated in the air like a ribbon for a little space, 
then was lost to the eye in mist or spray, then, touch- 
ing a projecting part of the rock, it condensed again 
into a stream, and came foaming across our way ! My 
friend was sleeping by my side. When this sight sud- 
denly opened on us, I gave him a rouser with my el- 
bow. He seemed not to relish the interruption of his 
repose ; but when I pointed him to the cause of my 
sudden assault upon his ribs, with a most emphatic 



180 MEN AND THINGS 

Descent of the Alps. Lady travelers. Anecdotes. 

exclamation, " See there!" he was satisfied. I can as- 
sure my readers that I slept not a moment on the night 
we crossed Mount Cenis. 

As the day began to dawn, which must have been 
about three o'clock, we passed the summit level, and 
commenced descending from our eagle height. As 
there was a strong opposition on the road, the driving 
was furious ; and we thundered down the Alps with 
astonishing rapidity. Soon we reached the culture of 
April — soon the verdure of May and June ; soon we 
saw the vine covering all the hills — soon we came to 
harvest-fields, such as we had left on the Po; and 
when we drove into the streets of Chambery amid 
branches of green trees scattered over the streets, and 
adorning all the houses, marking a fete-day of Popery, 
the thermometer was again at 85°. 

In this ride across the Alps, we had as our compan- 
ions a Prussian countess and her maid of honor, both 
remarkably intelligent, and on their return from quite 
a sojourn in Rome, They were frank and communi- 
cative, and told us many things to illustrate the piety 
and purity of Romish priests. A few days after they 
entered Rome they were visited by a priest, who begged 
from them five scudi to assist a very afflicted family ! 
He was a padre notorious for thus sustaining himself 
and his indolent brethren by collecting money under 
false pretenses. And yet he was not unfrocked ! They 
also told of the daughter of a most tyrannical father, 
who wrote a letter to one of the cardinals that she 
could not endure longer the conduct of her parent, and 
stating her strong desire to enter a nunnery. In a few 
days the father died by poison. The daughter and a 






AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 181 

Priestly villainy. Chambery. Rousseau. 

brother were arrested on suspicion ; the letter was given 
in testimony against them, and they were found guilty 
of patricide ; and the vast property of the father re- 
verted to the priests ! And it was the current belief 
that the priests poisoned the ; father ! They also nar- 
rated a long story of a widow lady with whom they 
were on familiar intercourse. On the death of her 
husband, she repaired to Rome to enjoy the opportuni- 
ties of devotion and seclusion which, she thought, it pre- 
sented ; but was soon compelled to retire from it be- 
cause of the shameful conduct of her father confessor. 
Unless all testimony of natives and sojourners is utterly 
false, the priests of Rome are sinners above all men that 
live on the earth. 

Chambery is the capital of Savoy, and although 
pleasant for situation, is a town of mean appearance. 
It has one good street, but the rest are dark, dirty, 
narrow, and sombre. Near this place, and on a pleas- 
ant hill commanding a fine view, is the country house 
of " Les Charmettes," once the residence of Madame 
de Warens and Rousseau. But as the day was hot, 
and as my dislike for the man almost borders on detes- 
tation, I declined a pilgrimage to his residence. Al- 
though containing but about ten thousand inhabitants, 
Chambery has fourteen convents, a Jesuit college, and 
priests and nuns out of all proportion to the number of 
the people. Hence the dilapidated appearance of the 
place and the beggarly appearance of the people. Why 
is it that priests and beggars go together? On an 
eminence near the town is a building containing a 
dead Christ, and on the pleasant way ascending to it 
are several little shrines, each containing a picture of 



182 MEN AND THINGS 

Indulgences. A padre at vespers. An inference. 

some scene in the suffering of Christ ; and to all pray- 
ing at these shrines and worshiping the picture in the 
building which surmounts the hill, the same indul- 
gences are promised which are granted to those who 
visit the holy shrines at Jerusalem ! And poor people 
in dozens are seen daily piously ascending the hill 
to earn indulgences, and going cheerfully down it to 
revelry and indulgence ! I stood for some time before 
one of the convents to gaze upon the padres as they 
passed in and out. The day was warm, and the win- 
dows were up. I was especially struck with the ap- 
pearance of a good-looking man wearing a priest's cap 
and robe, who with quick step walked up and down 
an entry, reading his missal with railway speed. I 
could hear his voice, and, when he came to the window, 
could see his lips move. I never saw a man in such a 
hurry to get through his vespers. As it was about six 
in the evening, it was these he must have been repeat- 
ing. And although in such a pressing hurry to end 
the formulary, he would stop and measure us with his 
black eye, but ceased not the utterance of his pater 
nosters. He seemed in as much hurry as if he had 
earned an indulgence, and desired to be away to prac- 
tice it. Unless his eye and Burgundy face bore false 
witness against him, he could sin and pray with equal 
rapidity. 

We spent a night in Chambery, and were off for 
Greneva in the morning, accompanied by our Prussian 
countess, between whom and one of our party there 
sprung up quite a social and agreeable intercourse. 
We passed a finely cultivated valley to Aix-la-Bains, a 
celebrated bathing establishment. Thence we pro- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 183 

To Geneva. First view. The transition. 

ceeded through Annecy, where lie the holy relics of 
St. Francis de Sales, to Greneva. The whole ride is a 
very fine one, through a very highly cultivated country, 
and rich in historical reminiscences. From Chambery 
to Greneva you are at no time out of sight of the snowy 
Alps. About four P. M. we reached the summit of the 
hill, whence we had the first view of the lake, and of 
the city of G-eneva. The sun shone brightly, the air 
was clear, and they lay in loveliness beneath us. Soon 
we passed the line which separates the kingdom of 
Sardinia and the canton of Greneva — a Papal and Prot- 
estant state — and were in Switzerland proper. The 
change in the appearance of the people was instanta- 
neous. The moment you pass the gate you feel that 
you are in a Protestant country. You leave the beg- 
gars on one side of it ; you meet a well-clad, industri- 
ous, and self-sustaining people on the other. Villas, 
increasing in sumptuousness and beauty, multiplied as 
we approached the city. Soon we entered its walls — 
for even Geneva is strongly fortified — and were rolled 
through clean streets filled with an active, industrious 
people, to the Hotel de la Couronne, which is upon the 
lake, and overlooks its beautiful waters. We were 
now out of Italy, where reigns the very midnight of 
Popery, and in a free Protestant city, for centuries the 
bulwark of civil and religious liberty, and sacred to 
multitudes in all the earth, because of its association 
with the great Calvin, who was to the Reformers what 
Paul was to the Apostles, the most intellectual, and 
best educated of them all. Here we soon were in the 
embraces of dear Christian friends and acquaintances, 
from some of whom we separated in London, from 



184 MEN AND THINGS 

Meeting at Geneva. 

others in Paris, and some of whom, on their return 
from the East, we first met here, making a most in- 
telligent and agreeable American party. And it was 
pleasant to talk and laugh again in English, and in 
our own mother tongue to tell of our travels and ad- 
ventures. We began again to enjoy the luxury of a 
home feeling. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 185 



Mont Blanc on a table 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Geneva: its "Attractions. — Miniature of Mont Blanc. — Missionary 
Anniversary. — The Oratoire. — A Drive up the Lake. — Ferney. — 
Voltaire. — Magnificent View. — A Soiree. — Dr. Malan. — D'Au- 
bigne. — Gaussen. — La Harpe. — St. George. — Talk through an In- 
terpreter. — Polite Interchange. — Love-feasts. 

Geneva has been many times described by travelers. 
Its great history and enchanting locality are sufficient to 
inspire dullness itself to try its hand at painting. It is on 
the southwest extremity of the Lake of (xeneva, where 
the Rhone shoots out from the lake, dividing the city 
into two parts. These parts are united by bridges, so 
constructed as to add greatly to the beauty of the 
scene. The town is chiefly built on the left bank of 
the river, and rises gradually from the banks of the 
lake and river, so as to present a most beautiful ap- 
pearance from the water. The streets are mostly nar- 
row, and often very steep, and in the more elevated 
parts of the city there are many very fine residences. 
But the great attractions of the place lie in its history, 
and in its extended and beautiful environs. 

Our first day in the city of Calvin was a very busy 
one, and was spent in a very miscellaneous way. A 
model of Mont Blano was placarded all over the city 
for exhibition ! "We went to see it — -like fools. We 
might as well have gone to see a cup of salt water as 
a specimen of the ocean ! There Mont Blanc lay 
upon a table, and we could have secured a oabinet 



186 MEN AND THINGS 



Anniversary. Enchanting view. 



edition to carry to America ! Thence we went to the 
Oratoire, the church where the theological professors, 
D'Aubigne, G-aussen, La Harpe, and others worship, to 
attend the anniversary of the Society for Missions. "We 
saw there most of the evangelical pastors of the city 
and vicinity. Every thing was simple — ministers 
without gowns — extempore prayer — singing without 
instrumental music — pews like the seats in our lec- 
ture-rooms — and a pulpit with a small sounding- 
board. The church is on one of the highest points of 
the city — difficult of access to strangers who crowd the 
hotels on the lake, and in a position which would not 
attract a New York audience, which considers a fine 
church, on a fine street, and easy of access, as abso- 
lutely necessary to acceptable worship. At about six 
in the afternoon we crossed the bridge under which 
the " arrowy Rhone," here of indigo color, shoots from 
the lake, and drove up its bank in the direction of 
Ferney. Ever since the perusal of Macaulay's review 
of Frederick the Great, I have held Voltaire in the 
most sovereign contempt, and would not go a rod to 
visit his residence, which I saw in the distance. I gave 
my reasons to my companions, which were deemed sat- 
isfactory. We ascended a hill to witness the effect of 
the setting sun upon the surrounding scenery. The 
Jura range was on the west, over which a bright and 
cloudless sun hung suspended. Lake Lehman lay in 
beauty beneath us ; on its opposite banks were villas 
and vineyards rising one above another in beautiful 
perspective ; and skirting the distant horizon rose the 
fleecy Mont Blanc, piercing the heavens with its sharp 
and broken points. Although fifty miles in the distance, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 187 

Sunset. Soiree. Dr. Malan. Dr. Merle d'Aubign6. 

it seemed as just on the opposite side of the lake ! As 
the sun declined, a blush appeared upon its pale, cold 
visage — that blush deepened every moment ; and when 
the sun fell behind the Jura, the whole snowy range 
of Mont Blanc seemed in a blaze of fire. As the 
twilight came along, bringing night in its train, those 
distant fires died away as gradually as they were kin- 
dled, and " the monarch of mountains" looked down 
upon us as coldly as ever. No such magnificent view 
do I ever expect to take again. Our guide informed 
us that there are not ten days in the year on which 
the sight is seen to such perfection as we saw it. The 
effect upon us all was enchanting. We would say to 
every traveler, if necessary, wait a month at Greneva 
to see this sight. 

We returned from this scene to one of a very differ- 
ent character, but yet equally gratifying to our feelings 
and tastes — a soiree, got up by the Missionary Society 
whose anniversary we attended in the afternoon. It 
was held in a hall provided for the purpose, and was 
fully attended. There was Dr. Malan, thin, of medium 
height, brisk in appearance, frank, and social, with 
hair white as Alpine snows flowing over his shoulders. 
And there was Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, large and full in 
stature, with heavy countenance, reserved, rather pat- 
ronizing in his air, more English than French in his 
whole appearance, and seemingly impressed with the 
idea that he is rather a lion than otherwise. And 
there was Professor Graussen, of middle stature, full 
habit, pleasant manners, silver gray, with a round 
French face. And there was Professor La Harpe, 
youthful, manly in all his developments, with a plump 



188 MEN AND THINGS 

La Harpe. St. George. Speech-making. 

red and white cheek, more suggestive of " the sweetest 
isle of the ocean" than of the loveliest lake in the world. 
And there was Count de Saint George, tall, thin, 
youthful in appearance, bland in his manners, with 
rather a wealthy and aristocratic air, but by no means 
up to the offensive point. These were among the nota- 
bles present. Ladies were there, ministering spirits, 
in large numbers. After the process of serving tea 
was ended, a psalm was sung with much spirit, the 
Scriptures were read, and prayer was offered, during 
which all stood. The plan was to have a brief ad- 
dress from some one from each of the countries there 
represented ; and when the Americans were called on, 
they were so kind, or unkind, as to send me forth as 
their representative. I made a talk for about ten 
minutes, and was interpreted by a gentleman of the 
company — the first time I ever spoke to an assembly 
through an interpreter, nor shall I be sorry should it 
be my last. Although I knew not what I had said 
when I sat down, I was soon brought to my feet again 
by an address from the chair, thanking me in behalf 
of the meeting for my interesting and eloquent address 
on the occasion. Half suspecting that it might be a 
bit of French politeness, which sometimes induces to 
put the more abundant honor on the part that lacketh, 
I utterly declined to accept of their thanks on the 
grounds on which they were offered, stating that if 
any thing eloquent or worthy of their attention was 
uttered, it was interlarded by my interpreter, and that 
I would therefore hand over the thanks to him. If 
making fun at my expense, I determined that they 
should not have it all to themselves. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 189 

Committee of the Whole. Breakfasts. Love-feasts. 

Soon after this passage at small arms the assembly- 
dissolved itself into a Committee of the "Whole, when 
we were introduced to gentlemen and ladies from the 
different cantons of Switzerland, from Germany, 
France, Italy, and Britain. Captain Packenham, the 
true-hearted Christian, exiled from Rome, where he 
was once a banker for the circulation of the Scriptures, 
was there, and gave a most interesting account of the 
good work of reformation in progress in Florence. On 
the whole, I was greatly gratified with this evening's 
entertainment. It was pleasant, social, cheerful, and 
yet pervaded by a truly religious spirit. They have a 
way of doing things in this manner in Britain, and here 
and there on the Continent, which might be introduced 
into our own country with happy effect. Their " break- 
fasts" in London, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Dublin 
accomplish much good. Meeting at a tea-table for an 
hour before a religious anniversary, where the speakers 
are introduced, compare notes, imbibe each other's 
spirit, so as to go out on the platform with a common 
feeling, and an acquaintance formed at a social repast, 
would relieve the dullness of many a May meeting in 
New York, and would greatly tend to cement Chris- 
tians of various names together. These are " love- 
feasts" that might be safely and profitably introduced 
among us. The tea-drinking in a room in Exeter 
Hall, which preceded the meeting of the London Tract 
Society, where noble men representing the different 
branches of the Church spent an hour in pleasant 
social intercourse, I will never forget — as I can never 
forget the soiree in Geneva. 

We returned to our lodgings at about eleven o'clock 



190 MEN AND THINGS 

Author of History of the Reformation. 

in the evening, greatly gratified with our first day 
spent in Greneva. We all regretted that D'Aubigne 
did not sustain the impressions made on us by his no- 
ble History of the Reformation. If we act toward 
him, when he visits America, as he did toward the 
company of American clergy at that soiree, he will 
write us down as boors. He is getting up some fame 
for his incivilities, especially toward Americans. His 
History of the Reformation has given him a wide repu- 
tation, and, to save himself from the annoyances which 
are the tax of fame, he should not turn clown. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 191 

For Chamouny. Change. Bonneyille. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

For Chamouny. — Enter Sardinia. — Obvious Change. — Fete at Bonne- 
ville. — The Ravine. — Fall d'Arpenaz. — Bridge at St. Martin's : 
its View. — Selling Echoes. — Ascent of Montanvert. — Mer de 
Glace. — Cracks in the Ice. — View from the Cottage. — Snow-ball- 
ing. — Salanche. — Return to Geneva. 

After an early breakfast we started, nine strong, 
and all from America, for Chamouny, a word which, 
however spelled, means always the same place. The 
world has hut one Chamouny. In two carriages we 
soon passed the gates of the city, rode rapidly through 
the pleasant environs beyond, and at the distance of a 
few miles crossed a little stream which separates Ge- 
neva from Sardinia — an ancient Protestant republic 
from an ancient Papal kingdom. The change in the 
people was again observable, as when we entered Ge- 
neva from Sardinia. Soon we were met by beggars in 
all stages of rags and mutilation, and only got rid of 
them on our return to the city of Calvin. The day 
was balmy and cloudless. "We observed by the idle- 
ness of the people — their standing in groups here and 
there — and by the branches of trees standing against 
houses, and suspended from windows — that something 
was going on. As we approached Bonneville, the 
road was thick with people crowding to the old town. 
It was a fete day of Popery, but in honor of what god 
or goddess I could not learn. "We stopped to dine, and 
to witness the gay and utterly ridiculous pageant 



192 MEN AND THINGS 

A procession. Manoeuvres. Faith in God. 

At the ringing of a bell a procession commenced mov- 
ing from the village church. It was headed by women 
in white robes. These were followed by children, 
neatly dressed, bearing baskets of rose-leaves ; these 
by children bearing censers ; these by priests fat and 
well-fed ; these by a large, ruby-faced bishop, bearing 
the host under a splendid canopy : behind the canopy 
marched the civil officers of the place, who were fol- 
lowed by a vast concourse of people. It was now mid- 
day, and the sun was hot, and the road very dusty. 
At certain signs the whole mass of the people knelt in 
the dust — rose again — turned to the right or left — 
halted or marched. The master of ceremonies sounded 
a whistle, and the boys scattered leaves for the priests 
and bishop to walk on, or they turned round and of- 
fered incense to the bishop and host. The soldiers 
were present in great numbers, and in full uniform, 
and saluted the host with volleys of musketry as it 
approached. And when the bishop stopped, as he fre- 
quently did, and turned round the host so as to face 
the soldiers, they all fell instantly on their knees, save 
the officers, who leaned on their swords with their faces 
to the earth. After parading the streets in this way 
for some time, the bishop and priests returned to the 
church, and the people and soldiers went to drink and 
to play. When the exhibition was over the streets 
were full of revelry. And with such mountebank ex- 
hibitions as these, gotten up by the priests to delude 
the people, the Papal world is full. And belief in this, 
and all its kindred nonsense, is what the priests call 
faith in God ! 

Thoroughly disgusted with this priestly ceremony, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. I93 



^2^1 D'Arpenaz. Viewfromabrid g^. 

we resumed our journey, and after crossing the Arve 
several times on noble bridges, and passing through 
some towns of but little note, we entered a defile be- 
neath towering, and often overhanging precipices, 
which mark the first grand entrance into the great 
Alpine ravine. And now our road lay on the banks 
of the Arve, which flows between mountains often 
8000 feet high, and sometimes rising from either bank 
like walls ! Soon the waterfall D'Arpenaz, the high- 
est in Savoy, rose to view, which, like that seen crossing 
Mont Cenis from Turin, leaps out from the very sum- 
mit of the mountain, is broken into spray and lost to 
the sight ; condenses on the rocks below, and rushes 
under a bridge into the Arve. It forms an object of 
great beauty. Beyond this jeu d'eau, the valley wid- 
ens, and rich fields spread up the sides of the snow- 
capped mountains to Salanche. Here is a bridge cross- 
ing the Arve, on one side of which is the dirty town of 
St. Martin, and on the other the not very magnificent 
one of Salanche ; and from that bridge we caught our 
first near view of Mont Blanc, and the one that most 
deeply impressed us. In looking up the valley, beyond 
the wintery bed of the Arve, rises the mountain of For- 
claz, its sides clothed with pine, and its summit with 
pasturage. Above that rises the Aiguille de (route, 
and the Dome de Groute, white as can be. And yet 
beyond and above these, Mont Blanc towers to the 
clouds, presenting a sight worth a voyage round the 
world to see ! It is here every feeling of your soul re- 
sponds to the glorious description of the poet : 

" Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains ; 
They crown'd him long ago, 
I 



194 MEN AND THINGS 



Our journey. Making echoes. Boys beaten. 

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, 
"With a diadem of snow." 

What a pity Coleridge did not date his immortal hymn 
at this bridge, instead of in the vale of Chamouny, 
where the " monarch" is entirely hid from view ! 

Here we left our carriages for that vehicle peculiar to 
this mountain country, called char-a-banc, in which 
we pursued our course to the vale along a gorge won- 
drous all the way. We never left the sound of the 
dashing Arve, nor the sight of snow and rich verdure ! 
At a turn in the road where a high bridge is crossed, 
and where all travelers have to work then passage up 
a very steep hill, we were surrounded by boys who 
wished to sell us some echoes. One would shoot a 
gun, and you would hear it cracking off many times 
among "the hills. Another would sound his horn, and 
the mountains promptly and repeatedly replied. And 
then, hat or cap in hand, they would most resolutely 
importune you. Not knowing how to get rid of them, 
and not willing to encourage vagrants, against whom 
guide-books and travelers warn you, I ascended a hill,. 
and after a full inflating of my lungs, let go a shout 
which woke up all the mountains. The boys stood 
* aghast, and pushing my advantage, I took off my hat 
and commenced begging them in turn ! They were 
completely routed, and followed us no farther. They 
found I could make my own echoes, and had no need 
to buy any. We reached the vale before ten o'clock 
at night, shivering with cold, although, judging from 
our feelings, the thermometer must have been 85° dur- 
ing the afternoon. 

We made all our preparations for an early ascent of 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 195 

A resolve. Mer de Glace. An incident. 

Montanvert. We arranged as to our mules and guides 
on our arrival, and as the former were rather scarce, 
myself and a friend agreed to take one between us. 
This I liked very well when it was my turn to ride ; 
but when I had to walk, I resolved most firmly to have 
a mule to myself the next time I went up that steep 
path. Through all kinds of paths but pleasant ones — 
picking our way amid rocks and stones — now crossing 
the pathway of the avalanche — now threading a cork- 
screw path up a steep spot — now sheltered by pines — 
now passing through a pasturage of sheep, and now 
passing through snow-banks rising six feet high on 
either hand, we finally gained the cottage on the sum- 
mit of the mountain. It was wonderful to see the 
dexterity and unerring accuracy of the mules through 
every step of the way. Not once did they stumble or 
tread upon a loose stone. We descended on the other 
side of the cottage to the far-famed " Mer de Grlace." 
This is a ravine winding among the mountains for 
many leagues, and filled with ice at some points three 
hundred feet thick ! We crossed this enormous sea of 
ice nearly to the opposite mountain ; we kneeled by its 
enormous cracks and looked down through them into 
the profound depths, and could hear the glacier torrent 
battling its way at the bottom. A man once fell into 
one of these cracks, whose body no effort could recover. 
Many years afterward, as we were told by the guides, a 
boy fell into the same crack, and in fishing for the boy 
they drew up the man, and so undecayed that his 
friends could recognize him ! His body was so frozen 
as to prevent the process of corruption. The view from 
Montanvert is wild and grand beyond description. 



196 MEN AND THINGS 

Views at Montanvert. Snow-balling. 

Beneath, is the vale of Chamouny, reposing in beauty, 
beyond which rises the Flegere, robed in white ; on the 
other side of you lies the Mer de Glace, one of the 
wonders of the world ; and beyond and around it rise 
those Alpine needles called Aiguille du Dru, Aiguille 
du Moine, and the Aiguille Vert, which is 13,000 feet 
above the level of the ocean, and which stretches up 
before you toward the stars 7000 feet from the place 
where you are standing. Behind those needles, and 
concealed by them from our view, Mont Blanc reposed 
in serene majesty, lifting its sky-pointing peaks nearer 
than any of them toward the throne of its glorious 
Creator. 

It was enough. After feasting our eyes upon the 
wild grandeur by which we were surrounded, we com- 
menced our descent, partly on foot, partly on our mules. 
And that we might be enabled to tell of it to our friends, 
myself and two ladies had a regular snow-balling on 
the 21st day of June, on our return to the vale below. 

"We returned to Salanche in the evening, where, 
with Mont Blanc in full view from our window, and 
surrounded with other peaks clothed in snow, we 
spent a pleasant night. After an early breakfast, we 
resumed our carriages on our return to Greneva, feeling 
that we had seen sights which, beyond any that we 
had ever seen, display the greatness, the glory, the 
omnipotence of Jehovah. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 197 



Calvin. His character. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Geneva : its Influence. — Calvin : his System. — Knox. — Sunday in 
Geneva. — The Market-place. — St. Peter's. — Gaussen in the Ora- 
toire. — Cathedral Services. — Dr. Malan's Chapel. — An Evening 
with his Family. — Sabbath Desecration. — Importance of rightly 
sanctifying the Sabbath. — To whom we owe its true Keeping. 

"We returned from Mont Blanc for the purpose of 
spending a Sabbath in the city of Calvin, and of seeing 
more of its sights. Small as is the town, and secluded 
as it is between the Jura and the Alps, its political in- 
fluence upon Europe, and its religious influence upon 
the world, have been vast. Right or wrong, John Cal- 
vin, who found here a home and a grave, was a great 
man. In proof of this we present his Institutes, which, 
considering he was educated a Papist, and for the bar, 
and that they were published while he was yet under 
thirty years of age, form an enduring monument to his 
memory. In profound thought, in scriptural knowl- 
edge, in acute discrimination, in severe analysis, in 
close logical processes, where or by whom have they 
been surpassed ? We are no advocates for the religious 
or political errors of Calvin ; he himself taught strongly 
the doctrine of human fallibility — those called by his 
name can afford to confess that in some things he erred ; 
but his most bitter opponents must grant to him a 
most powerful and far-reaching intellect. And be- 
cause founded on Scripture and reason, his doctrines 
and polity have undergone less change, and now need 



198 



MEN AND THINGS 



Calvin's grave. His monument. 



less mending than do those of any other branch of the 
Church of the Reformation. You are shown the house 
in which he lived, and in which he died ; but the spot 
of his burial, like that of Moses, is unknown. The 
severity he exercised toward others he practiced toward 
himself, and carried out as to his own memory. Wish- 
ing no pilgrimages to his grave by future generations, 
he forbade the G-enevese to mark his grave in any way. 
His monument is the system of truth which he unfold- 
ed, and which it is far easier to calumniate than to 
confute. To him, more perhaps than to any other 
man, are we indebted for those most important and 
glorious institutions, " a Church ivithout a bishop, and 
a state without a king." The services he rendered in 
these directions to the world make a great atonement 
for his severity and errors. 

Here too it was, and under the teachings of Calvin, 
that John Knox, an exile for the truth, lit his lamp — 
the lamp which illumined Scotland, which, in a relig- 
ious point of view, is the glory of all lands. 

The Sabbath sun rose beautifully over the Alps, and 
shone warmly and without a cloud upon the lake, the 
city, and the Jura Mountains. "We went at ten o'clock 
to the Oratoire, but the services were just ending as 
we reached it, having commenced at the early hour of 
eight o'clock. . In our way we passed through the great 
market-place, which was thronged with peasants from 
the country, in a rustic and peculiar garb, every one 
bearing a stick laced to his back, and extending about 
a foot above his head . They stood in rows like soldiers, 
and neither moved nor conversed. After some inquiry, 
I learned that they were mowers from the surrounding 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 199 

Sabbath in Geneva. Cathedral. Dr. Gaussen. 

country, who cam 3 there to he hired, as it was now 
the season for cutting hay ; and they stood in the mark- 
et-place ready to he hired. On our return from church 
we passed through the same market-place, and found 
but few of them left. The stick laced to their hack 
was the handle of their scythes. 

"We repaired to the Cathedral of St. Peter's, one of 
the most conspicuous objects of the city. It is simple 
in its architecture, very capacious, and contains few 
objects worthy of interest. It was here Calvin preach- 
ed with such power and effect, that profligacy was 
compelled to hide its head. It is now in the possession 
of the Church of the Canton, and its preachers are 
Unitarian. The place was chilly, although the day was 
hot; benches for pews, but few in attendance; not a 
person occupied the fine seats prepared for the city 
authorities, opposite the pulpit : there was an organ at 
one end of the building, and a chorister under the pul- 
pit. The preacher seemed remarkably animated and 
fluent, and used no notes. The people seemed unin- 
terested. There was nothing to interest us in the 
service, nor in the people, nor in the place, save that Cal- 
vin and his companions uttered truths within these 
walls which made, and still make, Rome tremble, and 
which will live forever. Thence we returned to the Or- 
atoire, and spent a most interesting hour in hearing Dr. 
GJ-aussen instructing a very large congregation of young 
people in the Bible by way of question and answer. 
To us it was gratifying to see so few in the Cathedral 
listening to the errors of Socinianism, and to see the 
Oratoire so crowded, and with the young, where the 
simple truth as it is in Jesus is so faithfully proclaimed. 



200 MEN AND THINGS 

Cathedral service. Dr. Malan's chapel. Service. 

I know not why nor how it is, but Cathedral wor- 
ship is substantially the same every where. Whether 
performed at St. Peter's or St. John Lateran, at Rome ; 
or at St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey, in London ; or 
at St. Peter's, in Geneva ; or in the old Cathedral in 
Grlasgow, it is the same cold, formal, drawling service, 
which neither stimulates the mind nor warms the 
heart. And they seem every where alike deserted, by 
Papists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, save when 
some novelty attracts a crowd. We learn that even 
at old Trinity, in New York, the audience at matins 
and vespers is often not more than twice as large, de- 
ducting officials, as was that of Dean Swift's, when 
reduced to " dearly beloved Roger." The world will 
not be much the loser when drawling Cathedral serv- 
ices of every kind shall come to a perpetual end. They 
were instituted in days of darkness by indolent priests, 
for an ignorant people. We know not a solitary bene- 
fit they confer on the race, while they do much to sus- 
tain priestly arrogance and to perpetuate superstition. 

At five P.M. we went, in company with two friends, 
to the chapel of the Rev. Dr. Malan. It is a small 
building within the inclosure of his own premises, and 
of the very plainest construction. And small as it is, 
it was not crowded. Over its door is this inscription, 
in French, " Jesus said unto those that loved him, 
My peace I leave unto you, my peace I give unto you." 
The service was in French, and in form like unto that 
which obtains in all Presbyterian churches. The 
manner of the doctor was solemn, but stiff; and his 
utterance was fluent and vivacious. On his kind invi- 
tation, we spent the evening with his family, and a 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 201 

Chat under the elms. Family service . 

charming family it is, all of them speaking English 
most fluently. In an interview with him under his 
magnificent elms, I learned from him that he held 
connection neither with the state nor the evangelical 
party. The state party he considers corrupt to the 
core, and the evangelical party as far too lax in doc- 
trine and • discipline. " I am," said he, " a Princeton 
man, and I can not unite with the evangelical party in 
many things." And on learning that I was educated 
in Princeton, and that my mind was first arrested to 
the consideration of religious things by the preaching 
of Dr. John M. Mason, of New York, no longer able to 
contain his feelings, he most lovingly embraced me. 

After tea was served, the family was collected for 
worship. One played upon the piano, and all sung. 
He himself led in prayer, in French, until he came to 
invoke Grod's blessings upon his guests, and their coun- 
try, and friends, when he at once used the English. 
"When supplication on our behalf was concluded, he 
resumed the French. The whole service was unique 
and altogether delightful. When prayers were ended 
we all drew round a centre-table, on which was placed 
a basket with slips of paper, on which were written 
texts of Scripture as mottoes. Each person, in their 
turn, drew a slip from the basket, and the text it con- 
tained was explained with some reference to the person 
drawing it. This was, for at least an hour, a source of 
amusement, interest, and instruction. And the whole 
was ended by each person around the table making 
some contribution to the cause of missions. A more 
sweet, Christian, simple, cultivated family we have 
never met. As we retired from the lovely circle never 
12 



202 MEN AND THINGS 

Sabbath desecration. Calvin's conduct. 

more, probably, to see the venerable patriarch who 
presides over it, we could forgive the sentence painted 
over his door, and which first offended, because seem- 
ingly too ostentatious : " Mais pour moi et ma maison 
nous servirons VEternel ;" as for me and my house, 
we will serve the Lord. 

Because of the large infusion of a Popish popula- 
tion, and of the proverbially lax views of the Continent- 
al reformers as to the Lord's day, the Sabbath is sadly 
desecrated in Geneva. They were erecting, vis-a-vis 
to our hotel on the right bank of the Rhone, a very large 
building, to accommodate the throngs brought together 
by their periodical shooting-match, where the cantons 
are all represented by their best marksmen. And from 
the dawning of the Sabbath's sun to its setting, they 
were working on the building, and in every direction 
they were practicing on the rifle. We have already 
described the scene witnessed in the market-place. 
The shops were every where open, and people were 
buying and selling. My friend took a walk through 
some of the fashionable promenades, and outside the 
walls of the city, daring the evening, and he testifies 
that he witnessed no Sabbath desecration in Paris to 
surpass that of Greneva, especially beyond the walls. 
Mortified with Parisian laxness where we expected 
Scotch or New England strictness in the observance 
of the Lord's day, we made inquiry as to its cause, and 
we were informed that Calvin himself, for the purpose 
of bearing testimony against Judaizing views of the 
Sabbath, would often go through the markets and stores 
of the city, making purchases as on any other day of 
the week ! Having heard this, and learning that the 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 203 

Lax views. Extremes. Defenders of the Sabbath. 

evangelical clergy of the city entertained the lax views 
of Calvin, we could account for the Sabbath desecra- 
tion on all sides visible around us. 

While there is a narrow and ceremonial view of the 
Sabbath, which makes it a day of gloom instead of the 
"pearl of days," there is also a lax view of it, which 
tends to make it more a day of pleasure than of devo- 
tion. And it is very remarkable to what a degree the 
maintenance, and the transmission from one generation 
to another, of pure, and simple, and spiritual Christi- 
anity, are connected with the true sanctification of the 
Sabbath day. We owe its sanctification, under Grod, 
not to Luther, or Calvin, or to the Continental reformers, 
but to English Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians. And 
we owe to these many other things which are now 
blessing the Church and the world. 



204 MEN AND THINGS 

Up the Lake. Lausanne. View. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Up Lake Lehman. — Lausanne. — Farrel. — Priestly Profligacy. — Cap- 
tain Packenham. — His Definition. — Neufchatel. — Needed Ref- 
ormation. — Farrel's Visit. — His Grave. — To Basle : its Appearance 
— its History — its Reformation. — CEcolampadius. — Erasmus. 

At nine o'clock in the morning the "Aigle" turned 
her prow up Lake Lehman, and in a short time Ge- 
neva faded away from our view. "We gazed upon it, 
"beautiful. for situation, until we could see it no more. 
The lake was quiet as a sleeping child ; it rained heav- 
ily, and straight from ahove ; and the Alps and the 
Jura Mountains, on our right and left, were rohed in 
clouds. On a clear day this is a sail of great beauty. 
Before reaching Lausanne, the rain ceased, the clouds 
soon passed away, and the capital of the Canton de 
Yaud rose beautifully on our view. 

Lausanne lies on the slope of a hill, which rises 
gradually from the lake, and at the distance of about 
two miles from the place of landing. It is intersect- 
ed by several deep ravines, giving it the appearance of 
distinct villages. The streets are up and down, and 
some of them so steep as to be utterly impassable by 
carriages. But from some of the high points, as from 
the terrace of the old Cathedral, the view of the city, 
the lake, the distant Alps, is very fine. Cooper, our 
greatest American novelist, says of a point above this 
city, that " it offers one of the grandest landscapes of 
this noblest of earthly regions." You are shown the 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 205 

Gibbon. Profligate priests. Packenham. 

house in which Gribbon concluded his history of the 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the writing 
of which was first suggested amid the magnificent ruins 
of the Coliseum. This city was the residence of Haller, 
Tissot, Voltaire, and Gribbon ; it possesses at this day 
a most refined society, and is yet the resort of many 
foreigners- for the education of their children. Here 
Farrel and other Reformers displayed great energy and 
eloquence in the promotion of the great work of the 
Reformation. It is said that in no part of Europe was 
the conduct of the priests so utterly shameless as here. 
They would often issue in companies from the bishop's 
palace, and from the religious houses, drunk, armed 
with rapiers and swords ; would murder men and wom- 
en in the riots that would ensue ; and after indulgence 
in all kinds of brutal licentiousness, would return to 
mass, the missal, and the confessional, where they 
would mutually confess, and then absolve one anoth- 
er ! The city was under the care of Mary, but Yenus 
was the divinity of the priests. The episcopal palace 
is yet standing, faded, and deserted by priests and their 
prostitutes ; but as you gaze upon it, the remembrance 
of other days comes over you, and the prayer involun- 
tarily rises from your heart, that the Papal banner may 
never again float from its turrets, and that the war-cry 
of Sebastian may never again go forth from its halls. 

We here met again the warm, generous, Christian, 
and self-sacrificing Captain Packenham, the exile from 
Rome and Tuscany because of his efforts to circulate 
the Scriptures. He is an Irishman by birth. He was 
an officer in the British navy, and he has lived in Italy 
until familiar as a native with its language and insti- 



206 MEN AND THINGS 

A definition. Neufchatel. Farrel. 

tutions. " What," said I to him, " is your honest es- 
timate of the Catholic priests of the Continent?" I 
never will forget the emphasis and the energy of his 
reply. " Popery and its priests are simply and only 
the police of despotism." This definition should be 
hung up where the nations should read it. To all 
Americans I would say, " Keep it before the people!" 

The fine country between Lausanne and Neufchatel 
we traversed at night in a diligence, and reached the 
latter city in the early morning. It lies upon a steep 
slope of the Jura Mountains, and is famed for its man- 
ufacture of poor Burgundy, poor watches, and poor jew- 
elry. And to these poor things I would add, from per- 
sonal experience, poor hotels and poor fare. The town 
seems neither Swiss, French, nor German ; but a mixt- 
ure of them all, and not of the best elements of either ; 
a kind of patois is spoken, which retains the barbaric, 
and drops the refined. 

But here was a reformation work of surpassing in- 
terest. In that old Cathedral canons of the most de- 
praved character said mass ; and in that building above 
the town, whose ruins are shown you, the monks of 
Fontaine- Andre prayed and reveled. The canons and 
monks were at open war. Both were equally wicked. 
They kept their mistresses — clothed them sumptuous- 
ly — endowed their children — fought in the church — 
haunted the streets by night ; and, to gratify their 
lusts, plundered the people. One day a frail boat was 
seen crossing the lake, from which was landed a small, 
thin, pale man, with sun-burned complexion, red beard, 
sparkling eyes, expressive mouth, his every feature ex- 
pressive of an iron will. It was Farrel. The canons 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 207 

His preaching. His grave. To Basle. 

and monks would have hailed a hundred plagues in 
preference to him. Forbidden admission to all church- 
es, he mounted a stone, which is yet shown the travel- 
er, and preached to the people. The canons and monks 
made a vigorous defense. Their shaven crowns were 
seen every where in the crowd ; they supplicated, men- 
aced, threatened, howled ; hut it was useless. They 
sought to blast his character — then to murder him ; 
but it was all over with them. The people of Neuf- 
chatel received the word of G-od. And as the sun was 
rising over the Alps, and over the lake, at one end of 
which this city lies, I was treading the ground on 
which Farrel preached, and viewing the old Cathedral 
where the canons carried on their orgies — on the ter- 
race of which Farrel was buried, and in which the 
doctrines of the Reformation are now preached. If 
Geneva is the city of Calvin, Neufchatel is the city of 
Farrel. Its historic glory is not in its princes of the 
house of Chalons, nor in its subjection to Marshal Ber- 
thier, nor yet to the house of Brandenburg, but to its 
having received the Grospel, " as if it had but one soul," 
from Farrel. Like the grave of Calvin, there is no 
stone to point out the precise spot where his mortal is 
waiting the call to put on its immortality. 

The ride from Neufchatel to Basle is one of great 
beauty at points. The road lies on the shores of lakes 
Neufchatel and Bienne ; for several miles the waters are 
on one side, and the slopes and spurs of the Jura, clad 
with vines to their very summits, on the other. "We 
crossed a low ridge of the Jura by a very fine road, and 
soon we struck a stream, which is one of the many 
which forms the head waters of the Rhine. Then we 



208 MEN AND THINGS 

A fine gorge. Basle. Its history. 

commenced a descent, which continued for hours, down 
a road which followed this stream, and through a de- 
file of fearful grandeur. It would seem as if the en- 
tire gorge, with its steep banks, must have been the 
result of human labor and gunpowder ; but that awful 
ravine, and the walls of solid rock, that tower to heav- 
en on either side, are the work of the great Architect. 
As we emerged from it, the ruins of old fortifications, 
which date back to the days of Csesar, were on either 
hand, and a beautiful plain opened before us, over 
which we galloped until we passed the walls and en- 
tered the old city of Basle. Although yet in Switzer- 
land politically, we were now fairly out of it physical- 
ly. And although bordering on Switzerland, Germa- 
ny, and France, every traveler would say, on riding 
through Basle — on reading the signs over shops and 
the names on doors — on witnessing the dress of the fe- 
males, with ribbons too long and dresses too short — on 
seeing the style of architecture, and the variegated 
painting of the houses, that it fairly belongs to the 
Dutch. None knowing the premises would say that 
this would be a violent inference. 

Basle has a great history, although not a great place. 
It dates back to the fourth century ; and because lying 
at the head of navigation on the Rhine, it became rich 
and powerful. During the Middle Ages it was govern- 
ed by warlike bishops, whose conflicts with their breth- 
ren often devastated the surrounding country. In the 
fourteenth century it was first decimated by war ; then 
ravaged by a plague, from which only three families es- 
caped ; and then was laid in ruins by an earthquake ! 
It had so far recovered from this awful ruin as to be 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 209 

Council of Basle. Reformation. (Ecolampadius. 

selected as the seat of the great Council which met 
there in 1431, which did so much for the moral refor- 
mation of the clergy, and which is therefore so much 
maligned by the holy, apostolical Church. Would it 
not be well for those who tell us of the unity and in- 
fallibility of the Papal Church to read again the very 
edifying history of this Council of Basle ? And there 
yet stands the old Cathedral in which that Council sat, 
now happily consecrated to the preaching of the Grospel. 

It was here the work of reformation, blended with 
that of revolution ; and although the excitement was 
intense, the mass was exchanged for the Grospel without 
the shedding of a drop of blood. The people took the 
work of reform into their own hands ; they entered the 
churches, tore down their idols, and burned them in 
the street on Ash- Wednesday. " The idols," said the 
wags, "are keeping their Ash- Wednesday to-day !" " I 
am surprised," said Erasmus, " that they perform no 
miracle to save themselves : formerly the saints work- 
ed prodigies for much smaller offenses." 

In the course of a few weeks, every thing was 
changed in this city. The Grospel was preached in all 
its churches, and the mass was pronounced an idola- 
trous rite the moment it was understood by the people. 
(Ecolampadius was the great instrument in the hand 
of Grod of this change. And he stands to Basle in the 
relation in which Farrel stands to Neufchatel, and Cal- 
vin to Geneva. 

Basle was the residence of the learned, the time-serv- 
ing, the vain, the cowardly Erasmus, who favored the 
doctrines of the Reformation, and yet wrote against 
Luther ; who scoffed at Popery, and yet was fretted at 



210 



MEN AND THINGS 



Erasmus. Zwingle. Missionary school. 

its overthrow. Here, also, is his grave. Here were 
born (Ecolampadius, Wetstein, Buxtorf, the Bernouil- 
lis, and Euler. Here Zwingle was educated. Here 
Calvin, Arminius, De Watte, Oken, and others found 
refuge from persecution. And here is a missionary 
school, which has sent out over all the heathen world 
some of the most useful and faithful missionaries now 
laboring to gild the earth with the light of the Gros- 
pel. Many and noble are the recollections which clus- 
ter around the city of Basle. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 211 

Lallen Konig. Along the Rhine. Women. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Departure from Basle. — Valley of the Rhine. — Variety of Travelers. 
— Characteristic R-eply. — An Observer. — A Question answered. — ■ 
Strasburg : its wondrous Clock. — Advice to the Priests. — The Ca- 
thedral. — iVn American Prelate. — Jews burned. — Why no Relics. 
— Poor Scotland.— Searched. — To Baden-Baden. 

At an early hour in the morning we stepped into an 
omnihus, and were driven across the famous old bridge 
which connects Basle and Little Basle, and on which 
stood the grotesque figure, "Lallen Konig," which, by 
the movement of a pendulum, constantly protruded its 
tongue and rolled up its goggle eyes, making con* 
temptuous faces at Little Basle. A ride of three miles 
through a rich bottom-land brought us to the railway 
station, and in a few minutes we were out of Switzer- 
land, perhaps forever. 

The railway keeps along, on what we would call 
the second bank of the Rhine, and for hours the river, 
and its wide, level, and fertile bottom-lands were in 
full view. There are no fences, and but few trees to 
obstruct the vision ; and at a glance we could see 
hundreds of people, men and women, mostly women, 
making hay. The view was often picturesque. As 
in Italy, the women here work just as do men, and hire 
out in the same way for about twenty dollars a year. 
There is no kind of field service which they do not 
perform. 

One meets abroad with every variety of travelers, 



212 MEN AND THINGS 

Variety of travelers. A reply. All In keeping. 

and especially from America. We are a locomotive 
people, loving travel beyond any other. Our men of 
tact and industry make money rapidly, and spend it 
often lavishly and unwisely. But few Europeans 
travel save scholars and the aristocracy ; hut Ameri- 
cans of every grade, if they have the means, will travel, 
unless kept at home by some strong antagonistic in- 
fluence. Hence you meet with some of them in the 
Coliseum, utterly ignorant of its great history — and in 
St. Peter's, who see there nothing to admire — and pay- 
ing a thousand francs for a modern daub, as a produc- 
tion of one of the great masters — and seeing nothing 
of art in the great frescoes of Angelo in the Sistine — 
and passing unnoticed the " Dying Grladiator." Hence 
the laughable and characteristic reply of an American 
merchant, on his return from Rome, when asked by a" 
friend in Liverpool, "Well, sir, you have been in Rome, 
what do you think of it ?" " Not very much, sir ; I 
think its public buildings are very sadly out of re- 
pair !" 

We had as fellow-traveler down the Rhine one of 
these sagacious Americans. He was a general, and 
an ex-state senator, and a brewer, according to his own 
showing. He was large enough for a general, pom- 
pous enough for a senator, and there was a swelling 
protuberance beneath his waistcoat which might sug- 
gest the idea that he had swallowed a barrel. He 
slept most soundly near me as we flew along our iron 
way. I greatly disliked to have him lose the points 
of great attraction which were rapidly opening upon 
us and as rapidly receding. We turned a curve where 
a beautiful panoramic view opened up, and laying my 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 213 

A representative. Vesuvius forgotten. Strasburg. 

hand upon him, I gave him a hearty shake, exclaiming, 
" General, what a beautiful view !" He rubbed his 
eyes and looked out for a moment, and as he quietly 
composed himself for another sleep, he replied, "I 
passed up this way before." After that I gave him 
up. He was a fit subject for staying at home, and is 
a fit representative of a certain class of travelers. 
" Were you at Naples when abroad, sir ?" said I to 
one of our upper ten. His reply was characteristic. 
" I really forget, sir," said he ; and, turning to one of 
his daughters, he asked, "were we, Sarah?" " yes," 
she blushingly replied ; "do you not remember Vesu- 
vius ?" But all traces even of Vesuvius seemed buried 
under the lava of dollars and cents. Why do such 
persons travel ? 

To Strasburg from Basle, the country is very level, 
and you are rarely out of view of the Rhine. We 
stopped to see the famous Cathedral, whose immensely 
high tower is visible at a great distance. We crossed 
the river on a bridge of boats, the first we had ever 
seen, and which recalled the days of Csesar. It seemed 
as firm as if made of wood or of stone. We met French 
soldiers and officers on the opposite bank, who ordered 
us out of our little carriage, and searched all its boxes, 
and felt over our persons in quest of contraband goods. 
Having none, they permitted us to pass on. We soon 
crossed the motes, and entered by the ponderous gates 
set in the prodigious fortifications which guard this 
border town ; and as the hour of high noon was ap- 
proaching, we drove with rapid pace to the chamber of 
the famous clock in the Cathedral. 

This clock is a wonderful affair, standing as high, 



214 MEN AND THINGS 

The clock. Its movements. Priests advised. 

if not higher, than our largest church organs. At 
twelve o'clock, Death comes out and strikes the hour. 
Then commences a series of wonders. The twelve 
apostles pass in review before the Savior, who stands 
over them with uplifted hands. And a rooster, made 
of brass, shakes his wings and crows thrice. If not 
perfect, the imitation is very fine. The noise of his 
brazen wings and feathers, when clapping them, was 
too ringing to be natural. And this clock tells not 
only the time of day, but the day of the week, the day 
of the month, the month of the year, the changes of 
the weather, the phases of the moon, the complicated 
movement of the planets ; and, in addition, it plays 
several tunes and marches by way of pastime. This 
clock was constructed by Isaac Habrecht, in reference 
to whom many stories are told. It ran down, and got 
out of repair ; and for years there was no mechanic 
that could repair it. Even Bonaparte took its repair 
into consideration. A man was finally found who could 
comprehend its wonderfully complicated machinery, 
and repair it. And we witnessed, with hundreds of 
others, its extraordinary evolutions at twelve o'clock 
at noon. As the Cathedral is in the possession of the 
Papists, it is a matter of wonder they do not make a 
saint out of Isaac Habrecht, and a standing miracle 
out of his astonishing mechanism. It seems to me the 
priests could make more out of it than out of the bun- 
gle of the blood of Januarius, or the winking Madonna 
of Rimini. I would advise them to try their hand at 
it. The only objection to the effort is the extreme tend- 
ency of the Grerman mind to incredulity. Yet there 
are many of easy faith with whom they might succeed. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 215 

The Cathedral. A bishop. Its history. 

When ordered out of the chamber of the clock, we 
went through and round the great Cathedral. It has 
two towers and but one spire, and that the highest in 
the world — higher than the dome of St. Peter's, than 
Cheops, the highest pyramid of Egypt. The whole 
building is the most distinguished specimen of (xothic 
architecture in existence, and its tracery the finest in 
the world. After viewing this and the other sights of 
the city, we dined at one of the best ordered hotels we 
saw in Europe. It was here we met the pedantic lit- 
tle archbishop of Ohio, with a big cross before him, and 
a stupid-looking priest acting as lackey, behind him. 
We asked some of the waiters who he was, and if his 
reverence had only seen some of the grimaces which 
they made behind his back, he would have been not 
much more pleased than on his recent defeat on the 
school question in his own beloved Cincinnati. They 
were either very poor Papists, or Protestants no bet- 
ter than they ought to be. It requires as much brass 
to be a Popish priest now, even in some Papal coun- 
tries, as it did to be an augur in the waning days of 
the superstition of the Roman empire. 

Strasburg has its history. It was the Argentoratum 
of the Romans, and, because of its position, has been 
for centuries a commercial town of considerable import- 
ance. Here two thousand Jews were burned on the 
suspicion of having poisoned the wells and fountains of 
water ! Here the art of printing was invented. Here 
the Reformation gained some of its earliest triumphs ; 
and a great portion of the people are yet Lutherans. 
Here some terrible revolutionary scenes were enacted. 
Here the Marseillaise Hymn was written by De Lisle 



216 MEN AND THINGS 



Ladies suspected. 



Here Vauban, famous for his skill in erecting fortifica- 
tions, earned many laurels. And yet all its lions are 
soon seen ; and after that, there is nothing to induce a 
wish to tarry. I made some inquiry for relics in the 
Papal churches, but could not learn that there were 
any. Somehow or other, holy bones, coats, nails, and 
pieces of wood seem to hate Protestants as much as do 
the priests ; and where there is a strong sprinkling of 
unbelievers as in Strasburg, the relics become bashful, 
and refuse to obtrude themselves ! This may be the 
reason why they abound in Italy, while I know not 
that there is even the holy parings of a holy nail in 
Scotland ! Poor Scotland ! 

Again we passed the gates of this old city and the 
Rhine ; and on the Baden side we were examined by 
officers, just as we were on the French side when going 
over. These officials seemed to mistrust the ladies more 
than the men, and on that account pressed their clothes 
less tenderly, and scrutinized them more closely. But 
we were soon on the railway, and drew up at Baden- 
Baden about six o'clock in the evening, a town beau- 
tiful for situation, and noted as a watering-place. Al- 
though the season had scarcely commenced, the streets 
were full of people — most of them, like ourselves, stran- 
gers. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 217 

Baden-Baden. Conversation House. Gambling-room. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Baden-Baden. — Conversation House. — The Gambling-room. — The 
Manner of the Game, and Gamblers. — Monopoly in Gambling ! — 
Hot Springs. — Their Manner of Use. — The new Castle. — Breakfast- 
room. — Underground Apartments. — Awful History. 

After locating ourselves in the Hotel d'Angleterre, 
we went forth in the cool of the evening to see Baden- 
Baden. Hill and vale, palace and cottage, splendor 
and poverty are mixed up together. So steep are some 
of the streets as to render them difficult of ascent on 
foot. A dense forest skirts the town, netted by beauti- 
ful walks, w r hich adds greatly to the attractions of the 
place. Opposite to our hotel, and in the background of 
a large green, rose the Conversation House, devoted to 
the various purposes of balls, card parties, eating, drink- 
ing, smoking, and gambling. And we saw men and 
women engaged in these pursuits, even to the smoking 
and gambling ! ! Very large trees throw a dense shade 
over the part of the green in front of the house, and 
hundreds were sitting beneath them, of all ages and 
sexes, sipping wine, coffee, and ices, in great glee, and 
apparently very happy. 

But the place which most attracted our attention 
here was the famous gambling-room, of which we had 
heard much, and which we resolved to see for ourselves. 

This room is connected with the Conversation House, 
and is finely frescoed and furnished. There are no 
green blinds or curtains to conceal persons from view. 

K 



218 



MEN AND THINGS 



The process. The banker. The gamblers. 

It is on the first floor, beautifully lighted, and exposed 
to public view. It is open to all — all may enter it, but 
all save those who venture are forbidden to take seats. 
We stood at least an hour to witness the operation, 
and to study human nature. Piles of gold and silver 
lay on the table, and by the elbows of a man called 
" the banker." A machine was there, which was turn- 
ed rapidly round, out of which a small ball soon drop- 
ped upon a board below, which was squared ; these 
squares were variously colored and numbered. And it 
would seem that whether the player won or lost was 
determined by the square and the number in which the 
ball reposed. As I did not understand the game, I com- 
menced reading the gamblers. The "banker" uttered 
not one syllable during the time I stood there. He 
watched the ball, and, as he won or lost, threw out or 
raked in the gold or silver. There was no conversation 
above a whisper around the table. There was no ap- 
peal — no scolding. One man threw down a Napoleon : 
he lost it — then two — then three — then five : he lost 
them all, and retired obviously disappointed ; but not 
a word did he utter. An old man threw down five gold 
pieces : he lost them, and retired. A man in mid life 
with jaunty air threw down three pieces ; the banker 
paid over : three more he won again and again. He 
retired with cheerful countenance ; and, as he retired, 
the leaden eye of the banker fell upon him ; but not a 
word was uttered. Some women were seated at the 
table, with all the soul they had, both as to quality and 
quantity, in the game ; but they did not play during 
our stay there. That they do play is notorious, and 
some of them even stake their virtue when their money 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 219 

Doubtful prize. Blackleg princes. Hot springs. 

is gone ! But such must have lost their virtue before 
their money. The winner of such virtue gains a very- 
doubtful prize. 

This was such a sight as I had never previously wit- 
nessed. That cold-blooded banker, schooled in crime 
and in the art of deception, watching for victims as a 
spider for flies — passion rising and falling in his face as 
he won or lost, and as quietly as mercury in the ther- 
mometer ; those victims throwing down their money 
in hope, losing it, and going away in despair ; those 
women, with fingers sparkling with jewels, witnessing 
and abetting the whole. 0, if I have ever seen fiends 
in human form, I believe it was. round that swindling 
machine in Baden-Baden ! And this gambling-house 
belongs to the Duke of Baden, who claims a monopoly 
in gambling, and who farms his monopoly to a compa- 
ny in Paris at an enormous yearly rent ! How humil- 
iating, that such robbers and blacklegs should rank 
among princes ! This is a town beautiful for situation, 
but its. moral atmosphere is contaminating. 

The hot springs of Baden form its great attraction 
and curiosity. The main spring issues from the side 
of the mountain, which rises over the town, and which 
is surmounted by the palace of the reigning duke. 
Over this spring is erected a large building, in which is 
a large basin for the reception of the water, whose heat 
as it issues from the rock is 154 degrees. The steam 
that rises from it is conveyed into apartments for steam 
baths. The water is conveyed into others for hot baths, 
where it is cooled to the required point. From this res- 
ervoir it is conveyed in pipes over the whole town, and 
at every corner you see the people drawing hot water. 



220 MEN AND THINGS 

Drink-hall. Morning call. Under ground. 

Indeed, it is conveyed across the river that flows through 
the town to a fine building called the Drink-hall, where 
people resort for the waters in the morning, as they do 
in Saratoga to the Congress Spring, and where it retains 
undiminished its heat and its virtues. The use of these 
waters is regulated by law, and none are permitted to 
bathe in them without an order from a physician. Un- 
less the system is in a state to require them, bathing 
in them is greatly injurious. A single bath gave to a 
traveling friend a pair of black eyes, from which he did 
not recover for weeks. One cup at the Drink-hall fully 
satisfied us. The water smells like poor broth, and has 
a salty, alkalish taste. 

We made a morning call at the new castle of the 
duke, which surmounts the hill, and were shown 
through all its apartments. As if for our accommoda- 
tion, he had just retired from his breakfast-room, that 
we might see the table at which a reigning prince sip- 
ped coffee. We have seen the breakfast room and ta- 
ble of many in America more richly furnished. The 
upper apartments wore quite an air of poverty, after 
having seen those of Versailles, the Q,uirinal, and Tu- 
rin. But the underground apartments possess a fear- 
ful interest. With lighted torches we went down into 
the cellar of the palace ; thence, by a spiral, inclined 
plane, we went down, down, until, by a door formed of 
one huge flag, and fitted to its place with remarkable 
exactness, we entered a small, oval room, perhaps ten 
feet in diameter, and hewn out of the solid rock. The 
door was shut behind us, and we were buried alive un- 
der the mountain ! A ray of light came from above, 
and we could look up as through a narrow chimney; a 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 221 

Fearful room. Its history. Kissing the Virgin. 

stone was removed beneath our feet, and we could look 
down perhaps two or three hundred feet, and could see 
a little glimmer of light upon a dashing current of wa- 
ter, whose murmurings came up to us from beneath. 
And all around the room were seats cut out of the rock. 
And what was the object and history of this awful 
room ? 

Its history, as given us by our guide, and within its 
walls, is briefly as follows : In the days of feudal clem- 
ency and inquisitorial piety, those suspected of political 
or religious heresy were suddenly seized and confined 
in some of the adjacent cells. The little room above 
described was the room of judgment, and the judges 
were let down by machinery through the opening above. 
The accused were then introduced, and that heavy 
stone door was shut ! And there, shut out from every 
eye save that of G-od and their judges, they were tried 
and condemned. If not guilty, the accused were hated 
or feared, which made condemnation even more certain 
than guilt. When condemned, they were commanded 
to kiss an image of the Virgin in the apartment ; in 
the movement they touched springs, which caused her 
to embrace them, and in the embrace to pierce them 
through and through with daggers. Then a trap was 
sprung beneath their feet, which let their bodies fall 
upon a wheel armed with knives, which was kept in 
constant revolution by a stream of water ; by those 
knives they were cut in pieces, and the mutilated frag- 
ments fell into the stream below ! 

And there we were, receiving this awful narrative in 
the very apartment where these atrocities were com- 
mitted in the name of justice and religion, with the tun- 



222 MEN AND THINGS 

Our feelings. Could stones speak. Relieved. 

nel above us through which the holy inquisitors de- 
scended, and with the tunnel beneath us through which 
the bodies of their victims were let down for mutila- 
tion, so as to be beyond the reach of recognizance ! For 
a moment our blood ran cold, and we were filled with 
horror ! Oh ! if those stone seats, and those walls of 
solid rock could speak — if the injunction of perpetual 
secrecy were removed by Him who upheaved the 
mountain, what awful narratives they would give of 
the scenes of treachery, hatred, and blood there perpe- 
trated in the name of Grod and religion ! What wait- 
ings were there uttered under the tortures enjoined by 
priests ! 

The stone door swung open, and we groped our way 
through a labyrinth of chambers and passages, dark as 
midnight, into the open air. "We all breathed easier, 
and a feeling of fear gave way to one of security. We 
were soon after on the railway for Frankfort-on-the- 
Maine, deeply impressed with the beauty and wicked- 
ness of Baden-Baden, and thankful that its days of feu- 
dal and papal tyranny were at an end. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 223 

Heidelberg. Darmstadt. H8tel Ruasie. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

To Frankfort from Baden-Baden. — Hotel Russie. — The City. — Ca- 
thedral. — Jews' Quarters. — Rothschilds. — Their History, and its 
Lessons. — To Cassel. — Down the Rhine. — Ruins, and their His- 
tory. — The Rhine and Hudson compared. — Cologne. — The Dom. — 
Mary and Bambino again. — The Three Kings. — The Bargain de- 
clined. — An Inference. — St. Ursula. — Bridge of Boats. 

Railway sketches must be either second-hand or 
very imperfect. I will therefore say nothing about 
our ride from Baden through Heidelberg, famed for its 
charming situation, its university, its Catechism, its 
great services at the Reformation ; nor of Darmstadt, a 
royal residence, whose drill-house for the soldiers was 
said by a wag to be larger than the duchy ; nor of 
the many pretty places and vine-clad hills through 
which we passed, and which we saw on our way to 
Frankfort. The day was clear and the ride was pleas- 
ant. We reached the city of Groethe late in the after- 
noon, and took up our quarters at the Hotel Russie. 
I find, as to this hotel, the following entry in my note- 
book: " Weary with the labors of the day, I lay down 
in a bed, which, to be comfortable, should be a foot 
longer or I a foot shorter. I will avoid this hotel the 
next time." It stands in an open, noble street, and 
has a reputation, like many other persons and things, 
wonderfully beyond its merits. I would warn all 
against it, save those who have the power of folding 
themselves up at night, and to whom such an opera- 
tion is agreeable. 



224 MEN AND THINGS 



Jews' quarters. A noble mother. 



Frankfort has much to interest for a day or two. 
It is surrounded by a fertile and fine country. It is 
famous as a free city, and for its ancient love of repub- 
licanism, when that form of government was at a great 
discount in Europe. It early embraced the doctrines 
of the Reformation, and most of its people are now 
Lutherans. The new part of the city is very fine ; the 
houses of the many rich bankers are really palaces. 
The old Cathedral is a very peculiar and unarchitect- 
ural building, and would seem to be the joint product 
of different architects greatly differing in taste and 
judgment, and neither yielding to the other. It was 
in this massive and ungainly building that the em- 
perors of Germany were erowned for many years. "We 
went to the Jews' quarters, where for many years they 
were shut up after a certain hour in the evening, and 
feared for a time that we were lost beyond hope, but 
finally got out of the narrow labyrinth, and got back 
in safety to our hotel. The sons of Abraham, wearing 
that mark on their visage which designates them 
equally under tropical suns and polar snows, were there 
in hundreds. It was in these narrow alleys the father 
of the Rothschilds laid the foundation of their great 
fortune. Nor would his widow desert her humble 
abode among old clothes and the poor of her people 
for the splendid palaces of her sons ; preferring an 
abode among her own downtrodden and despised peo- 
ple to all the trappings and attentions which their more 
than regal wealth could purchase. A fitting mother 
for such sons. All honor upon such unwavering affec- 
tion, even when fastidious and ill-directed. 

The history of this wonderful family has its lessons. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 225 

The Rothschilds. The lessons taught by them. 

Mayer Anselm was born in this city, in 1743, and 
died in 1812. Left an orphan at eleven years, he was 
educated for a teacher. Not liking this employment, 
he commenced business in a small way. He was sub- 
sequently "employed in a banking-house in Hanover. 
By industry and frugality he saved some money, and 
returning to Frankfort, he established a banking-house 
of his own, which is still in existence. Before he was 
fifty years of age, he loaned the Danish government 
four millions of dollars ! After the manner of his peo- 
ple, he called his sons around his dying bed, and his 
last words to them were respecting honesty, frugality, 
punctuality, and industry. And in twelve years these 
sons raised for different governments in Europe five 
hundred millions of dollars — proving them to be the 
most wealthy and extended banking firm in the world. 
Their great success they attribute to two causes — to 
adopt no project until examined and sanctioned by 
them all, and then unitedly to execute it ; and to aim 
less at great profits than at entire security. Simple in 
their plans, reasonable in their terms, true to their 
contracts, and punctual to every engagement, they 
enjoy the entire confidence of the civilized world as 
bankers. Their letter of credit will carry a traveler, 
without question, round the globe. And their man- 
ners are as simple as their credit is extended. Are not 
principles involved and lessons taught by this brief 
narrative worthy the attention of all men of business ? 
Is not honesty the best policy ? 

Rising early in the morning from that very short 
bed in that Hotel Russie, and regaining as I could my 
usual dimensions, we were away for Cassel, opposite 
K 2 



226 MEN AND THINGS . 

The Rhine. Ruins. Rhine and Hudson. 

Mayence, on the Rhine. The boat was in readiness, 
and soon we were steaming it at a rapid rate for Co- 
logne. From Mayence to Bonn the scenery of the river 
is very fine, and is constantly changing. Ruins dat- 
ing hack to the Middle Ages crown every hill. As the 
river was the great channel of communication hetween 
the countries extending from the Alps to the North 
Sea, there were land pirates who erected toll-gates 
upon its waters, and who plundered all who would not 
acknowledge their authority and pay the required toll. 
The castles, whose ruins are every where visible, were 
built by these robbers. "When their insolence and rob- 
beries were beyond endurance, the trading towns 
formed a league, raised a sufficient force and routed 
these robbers, and demolished their castles. Such is 
the brief history of those ruins, in which alone the 
Rhine can claim any superiority to the Hudson. If 
old dilapidating walls crowned all the mountains and 
beetling cliffs between New York and Albany- — if at 
every bend of the river, and on every head-land, there 
was something to suggest legends of robbers, stories of 
battles fought and won, and. associations running back 
a thousand years — in every point in which they could 
be compared the North River would be superior to the 
Rhine. People forget to what a degree their wonder 
and exclamations are the effects of association. Bat- 
ing associations, the Rhine nowhere surpasses in wild 
grandeur the Highlands about West Point ; nor, after 
you get out of sight of the Alps, has it any view to be 
compared to the Catskill Mountains. A few hours in 
a rapid boat down a rapid current brought us to our 
point of destination, Cologne, where, in the Hotel Hoi- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 227. 

Cologne. Cathedral. Sights. 

lande, we found very pleasant accommodations, the 
windows overlooking the river and the country beyond. 

This city, famous in all the earth for its " eau de 
Cologne" is pleasantly located, and very strongly for- 
tified. It is of ancient date, has a varied history, and 
nothing hut its Dom to attract the least notice. Less 
than ten. of its eighty thousand inhabitants are Protest- 
ants ; and hence, as we might expect, the churches 
abound in miracle-working relics. We issued out to 
see the Dom, as the Cathedral is called, and soon 
learned its direction by the old crane which yet sur- 
mounts the not half-finished tower. As far as it goes, 
it is the richest specimen extant of the old German 
architecture. Although six centuries have passed 
away since its foundations were laid, it is not yet one 
half completed ; and while the stones in some part of 
it are new, and recently carved and laid, in other por- 
tions of it even the stones are crumbling away. In this 
it is a type of the Papal Church to which it belongs. 

On a warm pleasant day, we wandered around its 
cold, vacant, but spaoious interior. Nothing impresses 
but its vastness and the finely stained windows. "We 
saw there a case containing Mary and Bambino, and 
other precious relics. The case is hung over with legs 
and arms, heads and hearts, made of some kind of 
composition, as votive offerings for cures performed by 
the image and the relics ! And before that box there 
were three persons praying most earnestly ; they were 
an old man, and a woman that would not be injured by 
a good washing, and a girl with sore eyes ; while some 
women were scrubbing the stone floor and screaming 
at the top of their voices, and some dirty boys were 
playing hide-and-go-seek among the pillars. 



228 MEN AND THINGS 

Three Kings. Pnshing a bargain. St. Ursula. 

Behind the high altar, to which none are admitted 
without " a compensation," there is a box which con- 
tains the relics of the Three Kings, or wise men, that 
worshiped the Savior. A shaven-pated man carried the 
keys, and he drives a hard bargain for the good of the 
Church. He offered to admit us to a sight of the sa- 
cred relics for six francs a head. But as there were 
several of us, we strove to lump a bargain with him ; 
but he declined, thinking we would pay the sum re- 
quired. But as he was stiff, we declined, obviously to 
his mortification, to go in at any price. Finding that 
neither our superstition nor our curiosity were as in- 
tense as he suspected, he proposed terms ; but we de- 
clined, telling him we believed the whole a hoax at any 
rate. This gave the jolly man not the least offense, as 
he believed the same as firmly as we did. Popery is 
the same unchanging nonsense every where. "We ask- 
ed the jolly beadle what they did with the money col- 
lected from travelers and others by these relics : "We 
use it for the finishing of the Dom," was his reply. 
Judging from the dilapidation and leanness of the 
house, and the dress and sleek fatness of the priests, 
we inferred that some of it, at least, took a different di- 
rection ; nor would any one say, that saw their stall- 
fed reverences tripping in and out, that this was a vio- 
lent inference. 

Here also is the church of St. Ursula, a female saint, 
who, with eleven thousand virgins, sailed from Britain 
to convert or populate Armorica. They were driven by 
storm up the Rhine to Cologne, where they were mur- 
dered by the barbarians, because of their unyielding 
virtue. And this church is hung round with their 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 229 

Fleet of girls. The absurd preferred. Bridge. 

bones ! Think of eleven thousand skeletons hung round 
one church ! Where did Ursula get boats enough for 
such a fleet of girls ? Why, in a terrific storm, did 
they not land before reaching Cologne ? How often 
must these bones have been renewed from the 5th to 
the 19 th century ? And even the wonderful legend- 
monger, Butler, tells us that there is a doubt whether 
the virgins of Ursula were eleven or eleven thousand. 
But the eleven thousand, because the most absurd, has 
the benefit of the doubt. My appetite for relics was so 
gorged that I declined a visit to this horrid sepulchre. 
By a bridge of boats Cologne is connected with a 
small town on the opposite bank of the Rhine. In the 
cool of the evening, that bridge was crowded with per- 
sons promenading back and forth, fanned by the cool 
breeze from the water. There we saw some of the high, 
and much of the low life of the city of St. Ursula. Co- 
logne is- a Papal city, and abounds with relics, priests, 
and beggars ; and, although cleaner than we expected 
to find it, there are spots where the water of the Fari- 
nas', for which it is so famed, would not be unaccept- 
able. 



230 MEN AND THINGS 

From Cologne. Aix-la-Chapelle. Antiques. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

From Cologne to Brussels. — Aix-la-Chapelle : its History and holy 
Relics. — Brussels. — The Pare. — Sabbath in Brussels. — St. Gudule. 
— Preaching in Flemish. — A sudden Stop. — Anecdote of Dr. Nes- 
bit. — High Mass. — Lifting the Pay. — Tour'of Observation. — Scenes 
in the Pare and Streets. — The Manikin : his curious History. — 
The miraculous Wafers. 

"We took an early car from Cologne. We passed 
through dirty streets and strong fortifications to the 
railway without the walls. Although our haggage was 
very light, they charged nearly as much for it as for our 
passage. The country to Brussels is level, and highly 
cultivated, with quite a rapid succession of large towns ; 
the most important of which are Duren, Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, Verviers, Liege, Tirlemont, and Malines. Of these 
the most historic is Aix-la-Chapelle. Here Charle- 
magne was born — this was his favorite city, and here 
is his tomb. It is pleasantly situated in a cup sur- 
rounded by hills, on which there are many beautiful 
residences. It was built by the Romans, pillaged by 
the Huns, rebuilt by Charlemagne, and here the em- 
perors of Grermany were crowned, until the ceremony 
was removed to Frankfort in the fourteenth century. 
It is almost entirely a Papal city, and is of course rich 
in relics. In the Cathedral is the tomb of Charlemagne, 
and some antiques of priceless value. Among these 
are the swaddling-clothes of the Savior and his wind- 
ing-sheet, the robe of the Virgin Mary, tho shroud of 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 231 



Relics. Golden key. 



John the Baptist, some of the manna which fell in the 
wilderness, the girdle of Christ, the linen and some of 
the hair of the Virgin, and a fragment of the true cross. 
Some of these were only exposed to royal visitors ; hut 
now they are exhibited every seven years to the adora- 
tion of the faithful of every grade, when pilgrims resort 
here from all lands to see them, and to receive healing 
from their sight and touch ! ! Others of them are ex- 
hibited even to the gaze of heretics "for a compensa- 
tion ;" and if your golden key is large enough to suit 
the sacristan, you may have a peep even at the swad- 
dling-clothes ! In this way large revenues are yearly 
obtained from Protestants desirous to see curiosities, 
and who are often laughed at by roguish sacristans for 
their credulity. The object of all these base imposi- 
tions is to raise a revenue. The other towns are more 
or less noted for the extent and perfection of their man- 
ufactures, especially those of Verviers, Liege, and Ma- 
lines, famous for its Mechlin laces and shovel hats for 
priests. Late in the afternoon we reached Brussels, 
the capital of Belgium, and soon found ourselves very 
pleasantly accommodated in the Hotel de France, which 
looks out upon the beautiful Pare. 

Brussels is a pleasant, airy, and attractive city, with 
many fine streets and parks, and wearing a general as- 
pect which forcibly recalls your recollections of Paris. 
Indeed, it has been called "petit Paris." And nowhere 
are you so forcibly reminded of the city on the Seine 
as in and around " the Pare," bounded by the Rue Roy- 
ale and Rue Ducale, and having the palace at one end 
and the representative chamber on the other. The 
trees are old and magnificent, shading all the walks ; 



232 MEN AND THINGS 

The Pare. St. Gudule. Art and architecture. 

and. beneath the Ijrees and along all the walks are 
pieces of statuary more or less elegant, and in varying 
states of preservation, as in the gardens of the Tuileries 
and the Place de Concorde. The city was once strongly 
fortified, hut the walls are demolished, and the place 
they once occupied is laid out so as to form a beauti- 
ful drive around the entire city. Some of the public 
buildings are very fine, but they should be seen before 
making a continental tour, instead of at the close of 
it, as in our case. 

We spent a Sabbath in Brussels, the last we spent 
in a Papal country, and among a people of a strange 
tongue. As there was no Protestant service in our own 
tongue, we went to the Cathedral of St. G-udule in the 
morning to see the home dress of Popery in one of its 
strong-holds. This is a fine specimen of Gothic archi- 
tecture, and has all the elements of a Cathedral — no 
seats — many chairs — painted windows — a spacious in- 
terior — many altars and confession-boxes, and a profu- 
sion of gilding. The painted windows are very fine. 
Its internal appearance is very meagre in comparison 
with the churches of Rome. In Rome every thing 
yields to the interior. A building which externally 
has no attraction, like that of Ara Coeli, is internally 
gorgeous, and rich in painting and statuary ; but out 
of Italy it would seem as if architecture was the great 
idea, and to which every thing is made to yield. Art 
rules south — architecture north of the Alps. 

We went to St. Gudule before the hour for high 
mass, which was that day performed. A priest was 
preaching in the Flemish to quite an audience of peo- 
ple, and the waiters were arranging the chairs and 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 233 

Preaching. Anecdote. Lifting the pay. 

moving in every direction making arrangements for the 
high ceremony. People were walking about and chat- 
ting with one another. A more inattentive audience 
could not be desired ; and were I the preacher, I could 
not endure the confusion. Just as the clock struck 
ten, a beadle walked up the pulpit- stairs, the preacher 
closed his- discourse in an instant, crossed himself and 
walked down and away, the beadle leading the van. 
The instance forcibly recalled another anecdote of Dr. 
Nesbit. He was in the habit of preaching sermons in 
the good long metre of Scotland. A committee waited 
on him, and kindly hinted that short metre would be 
more acceptable to many of the people. On inquiry, he 
learned that a sermon an hour long would suit them 
all ; he assented to the shortening. On the next Sab- 
bath, just as the hour was drawing to its close, he be- 
came exceedingly animated, interesting, eloquent, and 
impressive. In the midst of a highly- wrought passage, 
the hour ended ; and, without waiting to conclude the 
sentence, he closed his Bible, paused for a moment, 
and said, " Brethren, your hour is out ; let us pray." 

On the retiring of the preacher, the mass commenced, 
and the people turned from the pulpit to the altar. 
"We never saw priests more richly robed. The vest- 
ments at St. Grudule far surpassed those worn in the 
Sistine or in St. Peter's. Nor did we ever see in a 
Popish church a more numerous or respectable congre- 
gation. But, with slight variations, it was the same 
ridiculous farce of the mass over again ; and in the 
midst of the high ceremony, an interstice was left for 
"lifting the pay" from every man, woman, and child 
that sat on a chair. And it seemed to us most singu- 



234 MEN AND THINGS 



Money-changers. Sabbath parade. Evening walk. 

lar to see the collectors paying back the change to those 
who gave silver. For at least fifteen or twenty minutes 
the whole house was turned into an exchange, in every 
part of which was heard the jingling of coppers. And 
we thought of the money-changers in the Temple. 

In the afternoon we went out on a tour of moral in- 
spection. In the midst of " the Pare" rises a mound, 
and on that mound rises a building in the form of a 
canopy, in which was a very large band of musicians. 
Around this mound is a wide circular walk finely 
shaded with magnificent trees, and filled on both sides 
with chairs. The band on each fair Sabbath day 
commences playing at one o'clock, and continues to 
three ; and during the intervening time, the entire 
Pare is filled with the elite, the fashion, the gay attire 
of Brussels. The band plays, and the people — men, 
women, and children — all march. We never beheld 
such luxury of dress as was there worn by the ladies. 

The sight would have been gorgeous and fascinating 
were it not for its flagrant violation of the Sabbath. 
From the Pare we went out among some of the prin- 
cipal streets ; the shops were all open, and most gayly 
decorated, and were filled with purchasers, among 
whom we recognized many priests. We went to the 
most fashionable church in the city to evening mass, 
in which we counted three men and about two hund- 
red women and children. After dusk we took another 
stroll through the city. The shops were crowded — 
porter-houses and cafes were all open, and crowded 
with men and women ! the women often more numer- 
ous than the men ! Such was the state of things on 
this beautiful Sabbath, in the beautiful little city of 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 235 

Thanksgiving. The Manikin. His importance. 

Brussels. Another item in proof of the fact that Pop- 
ery knows no Sabbath. And as I retired to rest, I 
uttered my sincere thanksgiving to God that this was 
the last Sabbath I expected to spend amid the institu- 
tions of Popery, and among people of a strange tongue. 
The city is ornamented and supplied with seven 
fountainSj among which are Les Fontaines des Fleuves 
and the Manikin. This latter is the bronze figure of 
an urchin-boy about two feet high, who discharges a 
stream of water in a natural way. The people of the 
city regard the questionable figure with great venera- 
tion, as the palladium of their rights and liberties. 
The fate of the city is superstitiously regarded as iden- 
tified with the fate of this not very modest boy of 
bronze. When stolen, as has been frequently the case, 
his loss was regarded as a public calamity; and his 
restoration has been always commemorated with fetes. 
Princes have courted popularity with the people by 
presenting him with court dresses, and military honors 
and orders. The Elector of Bavaria gave him a splen- 
did wardrobe and a valet de chambre. Louis XV. 
made him a knight, and presented him with a suit of 
uniform. This little gentleman is dressed up on cer- 
tain days, when the city turns out to do him honor. 
He possesses a positive revenue, which is regularly paid 
to him ; but how he spends it we could not learn. It 
was suggested that some bishop or monk was his treas- 
urer. As the suggestion is not unreasonable, we may 
readily conjecture what becomes of the revenue of " Sir 
Manikin." He has become rather republican in his 
notions, and, since 1830, wears the uniform of the 
" Garde Civique," in preference to those of his royal 



236 MEN AND THINGS 

Wicked craft. Three wafers. 

donors. And as we gazed upon the little urchin filling 
the kettles and vessels of men and women who came 
to him for water, we were amazed at the stupid super- 
stition of the people, and at the wicked craft of kings 
and princes who could seek to ingratiate themselves 
with the people by heaping honors upon such a baw- 
ble ! Had the priests done this it would be all in their 
line. But they are not without their fraudulent relics 
in Brussels ; they have in the Cathedral the three mi- 
raculously consecrated wafers, said to have been stolen 
by the Jews in the fourteenth century, and to have 
been discovered by their miraculous spouting of blood 
when pierced with a spear by an unbeliever ! These 
are shown "for a compensation," and are annually ex- 
hibited with great pomp for the veneration of the 
faithful ! priests, priests, where are your blushes ? 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 237 

Waterloo. First view. Belgian lion. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

To Waterloo.— The Village.— The Field.— Just the Place for the 
Battle. — The dreadful Spot. — Feelings excited there. — Conjectures. 
— Justice to Bonaparte. — What has England gained 1 ? — Through 
Flanders to Ostend.— The Hulk.— Rapid Flight. 

We took an early breakfast in Brussels, and started 
for Waterloo, at the distance of ten or twelve miles. 
Without being as bad as many travelers would repre- 
sent it, the road and ride through the forest of Soignies 
is not very interesting. We went on with rapid pace, 
and at about nine o'clock we were in Waterloo, a most 
miserable-looking village. As we approached it we 
were beset by many learned in the localities of the 
place, and most kindly offering their services as guides. 
We employed a resident of the place, who most kindly 
introduced us to his wife and daughter, who had relics 
collected from the battle-field to sell. We proceed to 
the scene of carnage, and from the position which 
Wellington occupied, and where he uttered the com- 
mand, " Up, and be at them !" we took our first, delib- 
erate, silent view of the field of blood. Nor is there a 
solitary thing to arrest your attention in the field itself. 
If that artificial pile of clay called " La Montagne du 
Lion," surmounted by the Belgian lion with his paw 
upon a globe, to represent little Belgium as governing 
this big world, were scattered, as it ought to be, over 
the plain from which it was collected — if the monu- 
ments here and there erected to commemorate the 



238 MEN AND THINGS 

The field itself. The bloody furrow. 

military virtues of men that were there made to bite 
the dust, were removed — if the great contest which there 
decided the peace of Europe could he forgotten, it 
would he difficult to select a more uninteresting dead- 
level view than that which opens up before you. The 
plain extends, rich in cultivation, but level as the sea, 
as far as the eye can reach on three sides, and the 
forest of Soignies lies on the other. And yet one can 
readily conceive that it was just the place to fight such 
a great battle. There are no fences or ditches to arrest 
the movements of men, artillery, or cavalry. There 
are no hiding-places for cowards. An elevation of less 
than one hundred feet would enable a commander to 
review the army of Xerxes ; and, until I looked over 
the wide, level plain, I had no conception of a position 
where two armies, so vast in number, could fight, re- 
treat, deploy — where cavalry could rush to the aid of 
infantry — where flying artillery could appear and fire, 
and, before the smoke of the cannon had risen from the 
earth, be out of the reach of the shot of the enemy. It 
is just the place for such a fierce and fearful conflict. 

About a mile beyond the insignificant village or 
hamlet of Waterloo, you reach an eminence which 
rises on the vast plain like a wave on the sea. . You 
pass down into what may be regarded as the furrow of 
the wave, and ascend another wave at a short distance. 
Along the ridge of the first wave the British forces, 
under "Wellington, were drawn up ; on the ridge of the 
other, the French, under Napoleon. And the furrow 
between them was the scene of awful carnage. On 
the 18th of June, 1815, one hundred and fifty thousand 
men lined these ridges, nearly equally divided by the 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 239 

Wellington's position. Napoleon's. How it looked. 

vale between them. The battle commenced about 
noon, and lasted until night. And there I was stand- 
ing on the very spot where Wellington exclaimed, when 
the battle was obviously against him, " that Blucher 
or night might come !" and a little further on is the 
spot where, inspirited by the appearance of the Prus- 
sians, he gave the brief order to a concealed prostrate 
company, " Up, and at them !" as the " Old Gruard" 
was crossing the valley under the brave Ney. We 
walked over the valley, on that fearful day crowded 
with the heroic dead, and flowing with blood, and in 
a few minutes we were on the spot where Napoleon 
stood when he ordered his Imperial Gruard, which had 
never been conquered, and which was the terror of 
Europe, to the deadly breach under Ney, saying, 
" This, gentlemen, is the road to Brussels!" Never 
was an attack more valorously made ; never was an 
attack more firmly met or more fearfully repulsed. 
Under the awful and repeated fire of the British, the 
Gruard recoiled, soon was thrown into confusion, and 
the field of Waterloo was lost to Napoleon ! 

It was on the last day of June we wandered over 
this field of blood. And the two eminences — where 
stood the two greatest generals of modern days — were 
waving with yellow wheat, and the valley that divides 
them was bearing rich grass ready for the scythe of 
the mower. And every thing seemed as quiet as if 
the roaring of canon was never there heard, and as in- 
nocent as if the cruel war had never there perpetrated 
the bloodiest acts known in the annals of the world. 
And standing by the tomb of one of the heroic dead, 
and in view of the unsightly mountain, two hundred 



240 MEN AND THINGS 

Emotions. Napoleon. Conjectures. 

feet high, beneath which the bones of friends and foes 
lie peaceful in death, I felt intensely moved in view 
of the awful carnage of that battle — of the destinies it 
decided — of the wailing and lamentation which it 
spread through Europe, whose every country and island 
made some contribution to its piles of dead — and of the 
subsequent fate of the chief actors in the bloody tragedy. 
There the star of Napoleon set to rise no more ; Napo- 
leon, the greatest military genius of a hundred ages, 
and of the most capacious and comprehensive intellect. 
And while walking over the ground where the last 
tragic scene of his great military life was enacted, 
every sympathy of my heart went out toward the fall- 
en chieftain, whose history is yet to be truly written, 
and whose motives and character will yet be placed 
in their true light. 

If victory had followed the great hero to Waterloo, 
as to Jena, Austerlitz, Marengo, and Lodi, we may not 
be able to conjecture what results would have follow- 
ed, but we may state what would not have followed. 
The old Bourbon dynasty, restored by the Holy Alli- 
ance, would not have again cursed France. Bloody 
Austria would never have reached her present bad pre- 
eminence in the politics of Europe. Russia would not 
sit as now upon her icy throne, hurling defiance at all 
national aspirations after freedom, and coolly contem- 
plating the speediest and easiest way of converting into 
Cossacks all the people and nations from the North Cape 
to the Dardanelles, and from the Volga at least to the 
Rhine, if not to the English Channel. Poland would 
not have been blotted from the map of the world. The 
tragedy of Hungary would not have been enacted. The 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 241 

Object of Bonaparte. England's gain. 

fearful murders perpetrated in the name of justice, and 
for the purpose of maintaining the claims of legitima- 
cy, which have stained every nation of Continental 
Europe, would not have occurred. The Two Sicilies, 
as now, would not be groaning under burdens beyond 
human endurance. And Popery, as now, would not 
be arrogantly asserting its exploded claims, and mak- 
ing of even its mutilated and paralyzed form an argu- 
ment for the admission of those claims ! It was not 
with the progress of the race, but with the permanen- 
cy of despotic institutions, religious and civil, that Bo- 
naparte warred. He was ambitious, but it was to car- 
ry his objects. And if that ambition took the form of 
selfishness and of self-aggrandizement, it was the bet- 
ter to carry his objects. If he could do his work as 
well by being consul or president as by being emper- 
or, he would have preferred it. And we have faith to 
believe that his conduct, which lay in the direction of 
selfishness, was not of choice, but of necessity. If he 
were as bad a man as British historians of the Tory 
school would represent him, it is impossible that he 
could be, as he now is, enshrined in the heart of hearts 
of the French nation. It is not in human nature to 
make a demi-god of the devil. 

And what has England gained, save a monstrous 
national debt, by the overthrow of Napoleon? She 
mainly contributed to that end : without her men and 
means, the French would have swept all the other al- 
lies from the field of Waterloo by the first fire of her 
cannon. And what has she gained in Europe by her 
service ? Absolutely nothing that she would not now 
have if she had cultivated friendly relations with the 

L 



242 MEN AND THINGS 

Results of the tattle. Guide. Ostend to Dover. 

empire and its emperor, while Europe besides would 
be in all respects the gainer. The defeat of Napoleon 
at "Waterloo was the triumph of despotism over free- 
dom — of divine right over the rights of the people; 
and well and nobly did Robert Hall exclaim, when he 
heard of the victory of Wellington at "Waterloo, " That 
battle and its results seem to me to have put back the 
clock of the world six degrees." And England may 
yet reap the rewards of her evil doing in her constant 
and successful opposition to the plans and projects of 
Napoleon Bonaparte. 

We paid our guide ; and, although we gave him the 
wages of a whole day for a few hours, he besought us 
for " charity." We returned to Brussels, and late in 
the afternoon took the cars for Ostend. Although our 
road lay through Flanders, and the cities of Grhent and 
Bruges, such was the rapidity of our travel that we 
could see but little. Nor did we stop at Ostend long 
enough to have any experience of its odors, which are 
said to be not quite agreeable. We hastened on board 
"The English and Belgian Royal Mail Steamer," of 
which we might say all that we said, and more, of the 
boat that conveyed us from Dover to Calais. From 
ten o'clock in the evening to five o'clock in the morn- 
ing, seven mortal hours, we spent in the awful hulk. 
The fare was high, and there was no place for repose 
save the floor and benches. The sea was calm ; but 
the thing called a cabin was decidedly hot. We could 
not secure even a drink of cold water. And yet, before 
we reached Dover, two officials of her majesty came 
upon us with a demand for half a dollar each for at- 
tendance ! 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 243 

Flying. In London again. 

We were on the field of Waterloo at twelve o'clock 
on Monday ; were in Brussels at five ; at Ostend at 
ten ; in Dover at five in the morning of Tuesday ; and 
at eight we were at breakfast in the very heart of the 
city of London. This seemed more like annihilating 
distance than any thing we had yet experienced. And 
we rendered our devout thanks to God that we were 
again in a land of civil and religious liberty, and among 
a people whose language was our own. 



244 MEN AND THINGS 

Fleetwood. Bathing-house. Room-mate. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Fleetwood. — Bathing Establishment. — State-room Companion. — 
Landing in Ireland. — Introduction to the Assembly. — Dr. Cook. — 
Dr. Edgar.— Dr. Stewart.— Dr. Dobbin.— Dr. Carlisle.— Dr. Dill.— 
Dr. Goudy. — An excited Scene. — Great Speech of Dr. Cook. — Two 
Bodies compared. — The Irish Way. — A more excellent Way. 

Learning, on reaching London, that the G-eneral As- 
sembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland had com- 
menced its annual sessions at Belfast, I hastened thith- 
er to meet it. Taking the Express train, we were in 
a few hours at Fleetwood, on the Irish Sea. This is a 
new town, and is rising rapidly as a bathing and wa- 
tering place. There is here the largest, neatest, and 
most convenient bathing establishment I ever saw. At 
high tide, the salt water runs into a reservoir ; thence 
it is thrown up by steam power into an immense ba- 
sin ; and thence it is conducted by pipes to all the 
apartments, which seemed endless. The engine which 
pumps, also heats water for tepid baths ; so that you 
can swim, plunge, bathe, or take the shower, in cold 
or warm water, at any range of the thermometer, at a 
minute's notice, and for sixpence ! It seemed a per- 
fect establishment. 

" This is our best state-room, and you can have the 
upper berth in it," said the steward to me, as I went 
on board the steamer for Ireland. Anxious to know 
who would occupy the lower shelf, I asked him who 
would be my room-mate. " Dr. Cook, a minister in 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 245 

Introduction. Landing in Ireland. Emotions. 

Belfast," was his reply ; the man of all others in Ire- 
land I wished most to see. Having learned who he 
was, I eyed him with all the powers of my scrutiny. 
We met in the state-room. We each commenced grad- 
ual approaches — each knew the name of the other, and 
soon we ventured on a mutual introduction. Having 
tickled each other a little after the Irish fashion, we 
went to our shelves, and talked until the claims of sleep 
became irresistible. The night was fine, but the sea 
was unquiet. Amid a glowing sun and a refreshing 
air, we entered the bay of Belfast, and soon reached 
the quays of the city. And as I went forth from the 
deck of the steamer my emotions became unutterable, 
and I could not help exclaiming with joy, 

" My foot it treads my native soil ; 
I breathe my native air." 

how changed in years, in mind, in heart, in all the 
circumstances of my being, from what I was when, up- 
ward of thirty years previous, youthful, unknown, and 
friendless, I went forth from that land to seek my for- 
tune in the new world of the West ! Soon I was in 
my room at the " Imperial," where, I trust, I returned 
my thanksgivings to (rod for his varied mercies and 
goodness during the many years intervening between 
my departure and my return. And never did the sweet 
hymn of Addison possess to me the meaning and the 
unction which it did on that occasion : 

" When all thy mercies, O my God, 
My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view, I'm lost 
In wonder, love, and praise !" 

As soon as my arrival was known, Dr. Dill and Mr. 



246 MEN AND THINGS 

Introduction to the Assembly. The Assembly. Dr. Cook. 



Simpson, well known in America and highly esteemed, 
waited on me and conducted me to the Assembly, and 
introduced me to many of its leading members. Noth- 
ing could be more cordial than their hearty welcome. 
On the arrival of Dr. W. S. Brackenridge, we were both, 
on the motion of Dr. Dill, seconded by Dr. Edgar, unan- 
imously invited to sit in the Assembly, and to take part 
in its deliberations. No attention that Christian court- 
esy could suggest was withheld from us. 

The Irish Greneral Assembly, unlike that of Scotland 
and of the United States, is not a representative body 
from Presbyteries ; it is rather constituted as are our syn- 
ods. Every Presbyterian minister in the kingdom, con- 
nected with any of its Presbyteries, is entitled to a seat, 
and every Church is entitled to its delegate. Consider- 
ing the number of ministers and churches, this makes a 
large body of the Assembly ; far too large for calm, ju- 
dicious deliberation. All that we saw deeply impress- 
ed us with this conviction. The Assembly seemed to 
us like a great Presbyterian mass-meeting, where ad- 
dresses are made for popular effect. "With one tenth 
the number of members, it would have done as wisely, 
and more calmly and rapidly. 

The great men of the Church were there, and under 
sufficient excitement to bring out all their peculiar force 
and talent. Dr. Cook was there, of middle stature, firm- 
ly built, and, although advanced in life, with natural 
energies unabated. His face is long, his nose Roman, 
his hair and eyes gray, his lips thin and compressed, and 
his forehead expanded. He was obviously the man of 
the House, in debate. The conflict as to the founding 
of a college under the will of Mrs. Magee, between her 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 247 

Dr. Edgar. Dr. Stewart. Dr. Dobbin. Dr. Carlisle. 

trustees and the Assembly, excited all his energies. His 
invectives are terrible ; his acting very fine ; his wit 
keen ; his sarcasm withering. He sometimes fell upon 
his opponents like a tornado. Dr. John Edgar was there, 
rough in appearance, not handsome in form or feature, 
rather inclining to a semicircle when he walks or sits, 
blunt in conversation, honest and downright in his opin- 
ions and expression of them, intelligent, influential in 
debate, truly and subjectively pious, with a heart as 
warm as ever beat in an Irishman's body, and a nature 
all tending to the poetic and philanthropic. "Where," 
said I, as I entered the Assembly, "is Dr. Edgar?" 
" There he is yonder," said my friend, " with his head 
between his knees." No man in Ireland is more es- 
teemed or useful. And Dr. Stewart was there — since 
deceased — tall, slender, calm, logical, in many respects 
the most able man in the house, and obviously a lead- 
er. His social qualities were of the highest order. Dr. 
Dobbin was there, fair in complexion, rotund in form, 
of fine countenance, and always wearing glasses. He 
often spoke, and ably. Dr. Carlisle was there, slender 
in person, tall, with a fine head, thin gray hair, tender 
eyes, and a most benevolent expression. He was very 
retiring. I did not hear him speak once. His name 
is revered in Ireland for his great piety and his mission- 
ary labors. Dr. Duff paid him a most glowing tribute 
as an apostolical missionary in one of his Belfast ora- 
tions. Dr. Dill was there, of strong muscular develop- 
ment, which was sometimes needed in his conflicts 
with the priests ; calm, able in debate, in labors abun- 
dant, and esteemed by all for his piety and for his 
services in the Irish mission field. Mr. Dill, of Dublin, 



248 MEN AND THINGS 

Mr. Dill. Dr. Kirkpatrick. Dr. Goudy. 

was there ; short, but strongly framed ; able in debate ; 
and as one of the trustees of Mrs. Magee, the leader of 
the side of the house which went with the trustees for 
the location of the college in Deny. Dr. Kirkpatrick 
was there ; small in person, of sandy complexion, al- 
ways wearing glasses, speaking rarely, but beloved for 
his amiable, unobtrusive piety. And others were there, 
truly Irish in appearance, accent, and excitability, and 
the most violent men I ever saw in a deliberative body, 
save and always in the French Chamber of Deputies. 
One of these was the Rev. Dr. Groudy, whose acquaint- 
ance I had not the pleasure of making. His excite- 
ment rose at times almost to frenzy. When in his 
highest mood, he seemed like an incarnation of passion. 

Although warned on all hands not to judge of the 
Assembly generally by what I had seen during my vis- 
it, I will describe a scene which I witnessed in the 
church of Dr. Cook. 

The Assembly met at eleven o'clock in the morning, 
and adjourned at five for dinner ; it met again at sev- 
en, and often sat until two next morning. Dining in 
company with several eminent clergymen, we did not 
get back to the Assembly until about eight o'clock. 
The church was densely thronged ; we entered from 
the rear, and found the house in a perfect uproar. The 
moderator was standing and calling to order ; fifty per- 
sons were striving to speak : one would cry out, " Yote ;" 
another, " No, no ;" another, " The roll." One would 
rise, shouting "I rise to a point of order;" another 
would ask for "the civil power;" another would shout, 
" Turn them out!" There were cheers and hisses from 
the crowded galleries ; these were echoed from the floor; 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 249 

An excitement. Dr. Cook. Two Assemblies. 

and now and then, from floor to roof, nothing was heard 
hut confused noises, which the moderator could no more 
quell than a child could tame a tempest. Dr. Cook 
rose in the middle aisle, and got the admission of the 
chair that he had the floor. But how to maintain it 
and go on was the question ! And there for nearly two 
hours he battled, with remarkable skill and dexterity, 
the storm, repelling assaults from all sides, and admin- 
istering some withering rebukes to some that would 
interrupt him. His perseverance succeeded ; he main- 
tained the floor ; the intense excitement subsided, and 
he delivered the great speech of the Assembly, and in 
the best style of his best days. For upward of two 
hours the vast crowd hung upon his lips ; at one mo- 
ment, such was the anxiety to catch his lower tones, 
you could hear your heart beat ; and at another, some 
of his keen and terrible sarcasms would bring the vast 
audience to their feet in boisterous applause. The 
question was taken long after midnight, and the doctor 
carried the vote by a large majority. His deliverance 
on that evening was said to be equal to any of his great 
efforts, when in the vigor of his manhood he contended 
with Arianism in the synod of Ulster. 

The two most excited deliberative bodies I ever 
saw were the French National and the Irish G-eneral 
Assembly. "Which was the most excited it would 
be difficult to determine. And yet it was pleasant to 
see, on the day after that stormy debate, the fiercest 
opponents walking arm in arm in the streets of Bel- 
fast, and treating each other with all good feeling on 
the floor of the House. The Irish have certainly 
a way of doing things peculiar to themselves ; and 
L 2 



250 MEN AND THINGS 

The Irish way. No sediment. The more excellent way. 

because in a real row every body pours out their entire 
feelings, there is no remaining sediment; and when 
their feelings cool, they meet as friends. They fight 
it out, and then all is over. And all this is far prefer- 
able to hiding jealous, envious, rancorous feeling in 
our hearts, which nothing can charm or allay : 

" Which will not list to wisdom's lore, 
Nor music's voice can lure it ; 
But there it stings for evermore 
The heart that must endure it." 

On the whole, I go for the Irish way of settling dif- 
ficulties. " If any man have a quarrel against any," 
fight it out fairly, and then forbear, and forgive one 
another. I have no patience with the piety which 
restrains hard words, and which nourishes hard feel- 
ings forever. Yet the more excellent way is to indulge 
only right feelings, and to utter only soft words, which 
turn away wrath. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 251 

Visit to Connaught. Sligo. Going to ship. 



CHAPTER XL. 

Visit to Connaught. — Sligo. — Emigrants. — Often remove for the 
Worse.^Camline. — Famine Scenes. — A young Hero. — The Dead 
Ass and Family. — Industrial Schools. — Several visited. — Priestly 
Outrages. — Visit at Home. — Great Changes. — Dublin. — Mr. King. 
— Dr. Urwick. — An Incident. — A brighter Day coming. 

As on some future occasion I may treat of Ireland 
and the Irish in a separate volume, I must dismiss for 
the present all accounts of my very pleasant visit to 
that island with a few brief sketches. 

In company with Dr. Edgar, I made a flying visit 
to Connaught, to see for myself what has been always 
regarded as the most dark and uncivilized portion of 
the country. We passed through Lisburn, Moira, Lur- 
gan, Armagh, Monaghan, to Enniskillen, and thence 
to Sligo, where we first saw the opening of Connaught 
wretchedness. It was a market-day in Sligo, and we 
went all over the town. The people were poorly clad, 
generally peaceable in their demeanor, and the mat- 
ters and things for sale were of the most primitive 
character. As we approached this little sea-port, we 
passed a few small companies of persons which seemed 
to be deeply affected ; and on inquiry we learned that 
they were friends accompanying their friends to the 
ship which was to convey them to America. Many, 
many emigrants there are who sever the endearing 
ties of kindred and home, and leave their scanty, yet 
comfortable competence, and go out from influences 



252 MEN AND THINGS 

Emigrants. Camline. Famine incidents. 

that would bind them to temperance and virtue to the 
close of life, to become hewers of wood and drawers 
of water in America, and to descend through the grog- 
shop to intemperance, crime, and infamy, and to sink 
into a premature grave, over which a tear is never 
shed. 

From Sligo we proceeded to Boyle, where we were 
met by a private carriage, which conveyed us to Cam- 
line, the residence of a noble specimen of an Irish 
lady, and the young widow of a man belonging to the 
old Irish gentry. And now I was in the famine dis- 
trict of Ireland, and under the roof of a lady who, 
with a sister, remained to minister to the living and 
the dying, when all others fled as from the breath of 
the pestilence. They described to me scenes of which 
they were the witnesses, which rendered me nervous 
and wakeful through the night. A poor mother died 
of famine ; the father went to a town for meal, and 
got none; returning home, he leaned against a turf- 
rick in the bog and died, leaving three orphan chil- 
dren. The children were taken with the famine fever ; 
one, in her delirium, ran to the bog, fell into a hole, 
and was drowned. Missed by her sick brother, he rose 
and went in search of her. He drew her body from 
the hole, and, unable to carry it, drew it to the house ; 
and when my informant saw it, the body was laid out 
by the hands of that sick brother upon the cabin door, 
which was taken from its hinges for that purpose. 
That boy alone survived of the family. Could I have 
found him, I would have brought him to America. 
He was a hero in his way. 

They told of another family that killed their ass for 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 253 

Ruins. Schools. Their usefulness. The priests. 

food, and put away its meat in a barrel. The family- 
died, and their bodies and the meat of the ass were 
found putrefying together ! So many died, and so many 
were sick and unable to bury them, that many were in- 
terred in the ruins of their cabins, which were pulled 
down upon their lifeless occupants ! And the ruins of 
desolate villages, once populous, but now utterly de- 
serted, we daily met in our rambles in Connaught. 

Through the very efficient and intelligent agency of 
Dr. Edgar, much is doing in Connaught through in- 
dustrial schools, in which the children are taught " to 
learn and to earn." I visited several of these at Cam- 
line, Clogher, Newpark, Dromore West, Ballina, Owen- 
more, and others. They are mostly under the care of 
lady patronesses, and some of them are superintended 
by missionaries of the Greneral Assembly. In the way 
of the instruction of the children in morals and religion, 
and into habits of industry, they are doing an incalcu- 
lable amount of good. I have seen one hundred chil- 
dren in some of these schools, who, while they were se- 
curing a good education, earned more by their needles 
in working muslin than could their fathers by their 
daily labor. I frequently examined them as to their 
knowledge of the great principles of religion, and of the 
plan of salvation ; and, although the children of Popish 
parents, they would compare most favorably with any 
children of a similar age that I have ever met in our 
best-regulated and best-instructed Sunday-schools. Of 
course, the priests bitterly oppose them, and hate them 
with an intense hatred. They not unfrequently flog 
the children for going, and the parents for permitting 
them to go ! The priests have made Ireland a godless, 



254 MEN AND THINGS 

Ireland's cure. Home. Spots remembered. 

Christless land, and thus they have debased and cursed 
it. And the only cure for Ireland is that which these 
schools is applying, to instruct and to evangelize the 
people. "When the knowledge of the Bible and of Jesus 
Christ supplants the wretched idolatry of Popery, the 
days of Ireland's mourning are ended. 

I made, of course, a visit to the home of my child- 
hood, the remembrances of which were fast passing 
away from my mind. And the difference between my 
boyish recollections and things as I found them sur- 
prised me. The river of my boyhood was a small 
streamlet over which I could step ; the mountain was 
a little hillock ; the lake was a pond over which an 
Indian could shoot his arrow ; the road, two miles long, 
became remarkably shortened ; and the town, which 
was quite large, and with fine buildings, although not 
diminished, was only a small village, and with very in- 
different houses. There were three spots which I well 
remember : the place where the school-house stood, 
where I first learned the alphabet, but the house and 
my old teacher were gone ; the spring, from which I 
drew many a cooling draught ; and the place in the 
grave-yard where my father was buried before I was 
six years of age, and to which my mother used to take 
me often by the hand. Although more than forty years 
had passed away since I entered the walls of that par- 
ish cemetery, I went directly to that hallowed grave. 

the changes which a few years make in any lo- 
cality to those returning on a visit ! On reaching my 
childish home, that was gone, and another house had 
taken its place. An older brother, a joyous youth when 
we parted, now met me almost an old man. His wife 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 255 

Changes. Changes. Emotions. 

and children were entire strangers. Not one that I 
left in midlife remained. Not a trace existed of entire 
families. An old lady said she remembered me " a 
fine bright chap going to school ;" and a few persons, 
a little older or younger than myself, said they would 
know me any where, which was very questionable. 
This was all the remembrance I could eke out. I 
stood in the presence of a younger brother some min- 
utes without his suspecting who I was ; and when in- 
troduced, he was overwhelmed with surprise. The old 
neighbors were all gone, and the houses of many of 
them torn down. I called to see a relative that I re- 
membered as a youthful, blooming bride when a boy at 
school, and I found her old, and haggard, and sickly, 
and, in the vain effort to keep herself warm, sitting 
over a fire in July ! And the thought flashed over me 
that I was advancing in years ! My school-mates were 
all gone save one, who told me that I gave him a knife 
by which to remember me ; but I had forgotten even 
his name. Nobody knew me, and I knew nobody ! 
Whether or not it was the effect of my feelings, I be- 
came sick. I could not bear up under the emotions 
that were constantly rising on my mind and soul, like 
waves on a stormy ocean, and after a more brief visit 
than I intended to make, I ordered my car and was 
away. Never had I such a feeling sense of the mean- 
ing of these words of David : "As for man, his days 
are as grass ; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. 
For the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the 
place thereof shall know it no more." 

I would be doing great injustice to all my feelings 
should I close this brief sketch of my visit to Ireland 



256 



MEN AND THINGS 



Rev. Mr. King. Dr. Urwick. Kindness remembered. 

without any notice of Dublin and the dear friends there. 
The house of the Rev. Alexander King, the eloquent, 
fearless, faithful defender of Protestantism, whose elo- 
quent deliverances in America are not soon to be for- 
gotten by us, was my home, where I was treated as a 
brother. The attentions of Dr. Urwick, small in per- 
son, unimpressive in appearance, but with a heart and 
mind of the noblest development, were of the most 
paternal kind. I was deeply impressed with an inci- 
dent which occurred at his table. Dr. Baird, who had 
just landed from America, was there. "I saw. your 
son a short time ago in New York," said he, address- 
ing Mrs. Urwick, who has since gone to heaven. He 
was the first person she saw who had seen that son in 
the New "World. It was too much for her weak frame. 
She rose from the table, unable to restrain her emo- 
tions, and retired. Who but a mother knows the 
depths of a mother's heart ? And with Dr. Kirkpatrick 
and the Rev. Richard Dill I was permitted to renew the 
acquaintance which I had the pleasure to make with 
them at Belfast And the favors conferred upon me 
by these brethren, and by other distinguished citizens 
of Dublin, at a public meeting in the Rotunda, and at 
a public breakfast at Freemason's Tavern, in Dame 
Street, will be ever and gratefully remembered. 

A better and brighter day is dawning upon Ireland. 
Education is extending among the people. The pow- 
er of the priest, which has only been a power for evil, 
is giving way. The Protestant Churches are waking 
up to a sense of their high missions to the people. The 
ministers of the Established Church begin to feel that 
they should do something for the salvation of the peo- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 257 

Brighter day. Population changing. 

pie, who have only known them as fox and hare hunt- 
ers, fine livers, and tithe proctors. The lands are pass- 
ing out of the hands of bankrupt proprietors into those 
of persons of wealth, who can improve them and relieve 
the tenants. The vast exodus of the Papal population 
to this and other lands is making way for English and 
Scotch farmers, who are going over in large numbers, 
and carrying with them Protestantism and habits of in- 
dustry. And the prospect is most promising, that by 
the blessing of G-od upon these and other means which 
are quietly at work, Ireland will again assume the po- 
sition which ages ago she held for intelligence, religion, 
and high civilization among the nations of the earth. 
When all her people are educated — when the religion 
of the Bible is received by them, then the jealousies of 
sects and of races will come to an end — priestly agita- 
tions will be known no more ; and, like a tempest-toss- 
ed vessel anchoring in a quiet harbor, it will quietly 
rest under the smile of Grod. 



258 MEN AND THINGS 

From Dublin. A difference. Up the Clyde. 



CHAPTER XLL 

Down the Liffey. — Up the Clyde. — Glasgow. — John Henderson. — The 
Cathedral. — Necropolis. — M'Gavin. — Communion Service. — To- 
kens and Tables. — Pew Communion. — Dr. Gordon. — The Irish 
Mission. — Gaelic Chapel. — Dr. Candlish. — Model School. — Exam- 
ination. — A Dinner-party. — Edinburgh described. 

It was five o'clock in the afternoon when I hid fare- 
well to the dear friends of Dublin, and when the steam- 
er "Vanguard" turned her prow down the Liffey for 
Glasgow. Arid I thought of the day when, a youth, I 
sailed down the same waters in the " Martha," to seek 
a home beyond the waves of the Atlantic. And what 
induced me, yet a lad, thus to throw myself on the 
world ? The hand of God was in it. I went out, not 
knowing whither I went; but Grod knew. Soon we 
passed Kingston and Howth ; and as the shores of Ire- 
land receded from view, and the heavings of the blue 
sea commenced exciting some symptoms of internal 
commotion, I went quietly to my shelf, leaving the 
"Vanguard" to make her way through the Channel 
without my guidance or care. I awoke in the Firth 
of the Clyde, in the morning. Soon we left the barren 
hills of Arran behind us ; soon those of Bute. After 
stopping an hour at Greenock, we continued our course 
by Dumbarton Castle and town to Glasgow, where we 
arrived at noon. 

The sail up the Clyde is pleasant, and, to a stranger, 
interesting. The hills are treeless, and covered only 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 259 



Clyde and Hudson. Glasgow. 



with heather. The houses on the water's edge are 
without any shelter. Villages are frequent, and wear 
an appearance of neatness. Above G-reenock, the chan- 
nel of the river becomes winding and narrow, and the 
navigation slow and difficult; and while the scenery 
is pleasing, every thing is on a cabinet scale. It bears 
scarcely a comparison with a sail up the Hudson. 

Grlasgow is the Manchester of Scotland, and is in- 
creasing like an American city. It has now a popula- 
tion of 360,000, while in 1830 it had only about 
200,000. While almost exclusively a commercial city, 
it has several literary, and many charitable and phil- 
anthropic institutions. Its churches are numerous — 
many of its clergy have an American as well as a Eu- 
ropean reputation ; and many of its princely merchants 
consecrate their wealth and influence to arrest the tide 
of wickedness flowing in upon it because of its mer- 
cantile and manufacturing prosperity. Among these 
are John Henderson, of Park, one of the co-laborers of 
Sir Andrew Agnew on the better sanctification of the 
Sabbath, and upon whom the mantle of the departed 
baronet seems to have fallen. 

The old Cathedral and the Necropolis alone possess- 
ed any peculiar interest to me. The first is almost the 
only ecclesiastical building of the Middle Ages left 
north of the Tweed, and is venerable for its antiquity ; 
but, interiorly, the unity of its design is entirely de- 
stroyed by its being fitted up for Protestant worship. 
Its crypt is said to be one of the finest in Europe, in 
which, our guide informed us, lie buried the remains 
of Irving. The Necropolis, which is the Pere la Chaise 
of Grlasgow, forms a fine background to the Cathedral, 



260 MEN AND THINGS 

Necropolis. Monuments. Edinburgh. 

from which it is separated by a small streamlet or 
"burn," which babbles along its stony bed to the Clyde. 
On passing over this burn on " the Bridge of Sighs," 
you ascend up by a steep, winding path ; and when 
you reach the summit of the grounds, the Cathedral of 
St. Mungo and G-lasgow lie at your feet. The view 
from this point is extended for such a hilly country, 
and is very fine. There are two monuments which ar- 
rest the attention of every visitor : the first and most 
conspicuous is that erected to the memory of John 
Knox ; and the other is that erected to perpetuate the 
memory of M'Gravin, the author of " The Protestant," 
and who was a banker and merchant of this city. He 
was a man of learning, piety, philanthropy ; and al- 
though his memory is blackened in every way by papal 
bishops and " the inferior clergy," it is held in the 
very highest repute by the people of Glasgow. "Were 
they not such stanch Protestants, and were it not for 
the fear of placing him in bad company, they would 
put him in the calendar. They know too much of the 
history of papal saints to place their noble and fearless 
fellow-citizen on a par with such ignorant and wicked 
sensualists and fanatics. The time from Grlasgow to 
Edinburgh is less than two hours ; and I reached the 
Athens of the North late on Saturday evening. 

My first Sabbath in Scotland was a most interesting 
one. It was communion at Free St. Mary's, of which 
the venerable and beloved Dr. Henry Gxray is pastor. 
As we entered the church, a table with plates on it, 
and around which stood several persons, first presented 
itself. All that entered placed some money on the 
plates. And this custom we observed every where in 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 



261 



Communion season. Tokens and tables. 

Scotland where we worshiped. When the people go 
up to worship G-od, they are " careful to remember the 
poor." This saves from our unseemly way of taking 
up collections, whether with plates or with hags, which 
often detracts more from the solemnity of a service than 
the collections benefit. The pastor, wearing his gown 
and bands, feeble in health, thin, and tall in person, 
preached a sweet sermon, and with great unction, on 
the text, " Christ in you the hope of glory." Tables 
and tokens were used. The first table was served by 
Dr. Cunningham ; and when its service was ended, 
nearly all that communicated retired from the house. 
The younger communicants retired at the close of the 
sermon, but returned in time to commune at the last 
tables. As each table has a service of its own, and 
often from a different clergyman, it makes of the whole 
ceremony a very protracted affair. And while impress- 
ed with the solemnity of the service, and with the very 
weighty and important exhortations made, and with 
the large number of youth that partook of the sacra- 
ment, we could not help the conviction that "tokens 
and tables," without adding any thing, greatly detract- 
ed from the unity, the solemnity, and impressiveness 
of the entire service, and tend greatly to the weariness 
of pastor and people. Pew communion, as with us, 
where the old and young met together without noise 
or changing of seats, where all remain until the service 
is ended, where all are invited to partake who make a 
credible profession of religion, placing the responsibili- 
ty of partaking unworthily upon themselves, we believe 
to be the more excellent way. The rule which would 
bind us in this matter to the way of our Scotch and 



262 MEN AND THINGS 



A mistake. Singular audience. 



Irish ancestry, is better in the breach than in the ob- 
servance. 

We went in the afternoon to hear Dr. Grordon in his 
new edifice by the new college of the Free Church. 
His congregation was large and attentive. The doctor 
is a small, lean man, past sixty years of age, with thin 
gray hair, high forehead, and with a general expression 
of countenance more amiable than intellectual. With 
a feeble, but yet distinct and effective voice, he preach- 
ed an excellent sermon. The seat of his elders is on a 
range with the pulpit, and almost as high ; among 
whom sat Dr. Duff. Dr. Cunningham is one of his eld- 
ers. As a pious, judicious man, consecrated to his 
work, and safe in all his measures and influences, Dr. 
Grordon stands very high in Britain. 

As Dr. Candlish was advertised to preach in the Grae- 
lic chapel, under the shadow of the castle, in the even- 
ing, I took a long walk to hear him. Following a crowd, 
I pressed my way into a circular building to a position 
where I had a full view of what was going on. The 
pulpit, standing on one side near the floor, was occu- 
pied by two ministers, while seats rose one above an- 
other to the very roof ; and these seats all the way up 
were crowded densely with a most interested auditory. 
The men in the pulpit were asking questions of per- 
sons on the opposite side of the house, and on the high- 
est seats. They replied in a peculiar accent, and oft- 
en asked questions in turn. Persons through the 
house asked questions, and often interposed. Sheridan 
Knowles sat near the pulpit, and addressed the people. 
Dr. Begg was there and spoke. Somebody said some- 
thing about the Savior reducing the Ten Command- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 263 

A good hit. Irish mission. Dr. Candlish. 

ments to two, while the Papists made two of one, and 
thus made eleven commandments. " And sure," said 
a man with a droll voice and accent, throwing a broad 
smile over the whole auditory, " and sure, if you Prot- 
estants can get along with two commandments, we 
Roman Catholics ought to be able to get along with 
eleven." Astonished at all I saw and heard, I asked, 
" Is that Dr. Candlish, and is this the Graelic chapel?" 
" Oh, no," said the person I addressed, " this is the 
service of the Irish mission ; Dr. Candlish is preaching 
in the church opposite." The chief man in the pulpit 
was the Rev. Peter M'Menomy, a converted Papist, a 
minister of the Free Church, and at the head of the 
Edinburgh mission to the Irish Papists ; and the per- 
sons to whom he was propounding questions were Irish 
papists, with whom he often held these keen discus- 
sions, and hundreds of whom were led to give up the 
missal for the Bible, and the mumbling of the mass for 
the true worship of Gfod. 

From the crowded mission house I passed over to 
the (xaelic chapel, equally crowded, on the opposite side. 
They were singing when I entered; and they were all 
singing. And such a shout of hearty devotion I had 
never heard. Dr. Candlish, very small, very thin, very 
restless, with a finely-developed head, projecting fore- 
head, and a quick, restless eye, was alone in the pulpit. 
He laid himself down on the Bible when he prayed. 
His voice is not well modulated. He preached on the 
faith of Abraham, with contortions of person and coun- 
tenance, and of his gown and bands, which were some- 
times ludicrous enough. Some of his positions and ges- 
tures were almost as awkward, as violent, and as elo- 



264 MEN AND THINGS 

His sermon. Schools. Examination. 

quent as were those of Dr. Duff at Exeter Hall. The 
sermon was abstract and very able, and was heard 
throughout with fixed attention ; but a friend suggest- 
ed that he put thoughts into the mind of Abraham of 
which the good old patriarch had never even dreamed. 
I gave to the suggestion my assent. He is making his 
mark upon Scotland. Though odd in his manners, 
which are often abrupt and bluff, he is most affable, 
and full of conversation. He is a man of great and 
varied powers. 

Nothing more deeply interested me in Edinburgh 
than the examinations of their schools. On invitation, 
I went with Dr. Candlish to the examination of the 
model school of the Free Church, which occupies the 
house of the good regent, Murray ; and where you are 
shown a thorn-bush planted by Q,ueen Mary, and the 
room in which the treaty with England was signed. 
Many of the clergy and of the teachers of the city 
were there. The examination was thorough, and re- 
markably well sustained. Never did I hear such an 
examination in the Shorter Catechism. By boys and 
girls, ranging from twelve to eighteen or twenty years, 
it was analyzed with a dexterity and readiness which 
showed that it was placed on the same ground as 
algebra, Euclid, grammar, and geography in the 
science of education. And it is this attention to 
thorough religious instruction in their youth which 
has given the Scotch a character for principle and 
honesty above any other people. After the close of 
the examination we repaired to the house of Mr. 
Johnstone, the enterprising publisher, and sat down to 
dinner with a company of authors, scholars, and teach- 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 265 

Dinner-party. Edinburgh. Standing argument. 

ers, among whom were Dr. Cunningham, Dr. M'Crie, 
Dr. Hetherington, Dr. Tweedie, Dr. Candlish, names 
known to fame on both continents, and whose pres- 
ence would give character to any assemblage. Noth- 
ing pertaining to the education of the young is beneath 
the notice and patronage of Scotland's noblest men. 
And so it should be in all the earth. 

Edinburgh is a city beautiful for situation. In 
panoramic splendor it is not surpassed by any city of 
Europe. The solitary grandeur of Arthur's Seat — the 
castle frowning from its airy height in the midst of 
the city — Caiton Hill, with its observatory, monu- 
ments, and unfinished Parthenon, a monument to the 
pride and poverty of Scotland — the estuary of Forth, 
expanding into the ocean — the surrounding Pentland, 
Lammermoor, and Grampian Hills — the picturesque 
disorder of the Old Town, and the almost painful pro- 
portions and elegance of the New, form features of a 
landscape of great beauty and sublimity. But its 
true glory lies in its commodious churches, its very 
able and evangelical ministry, its literary, moral, and 
religious institutions, and the general intelligence and 
morality of its people. In all these respects, it stands 
pre-eminent among the cities of the earth. The world 
may revile John Knox, and ignorant sectaries may 
defame the doctrine and order which are distinctively 
Presbyterian, but Edinburgh and all Scotland present 
a standing argument in the vindication of both which 
no mind of ordinary fairness can either gainsay or con- 
tradict. 

M 



266 MEN AND THINGS 

Rev. J. A. James. To Oban. Passengers. 



CHAPTER XLIL 

Park. — Rev. J. A. James. — Sail to Oban. — Oban. — Royalty in Exile. 
— Sail round Mull. — Staffa : its Cave. — lona : its History. — Ruins. 
— Culdees. — Royal Graves. — The ruling Passion. — Stone Crosses. 
—Talk on the Wheel-box. 

That was a pleasant evening which I spent at Park, 
on the Clyde, the residence of John Henderson, Esquire. 
It was there I met the Rev. John Angel James, of Bir- 
mingham, so widely known for his many pious, evan- 
gelical, and greatly useful works. He is very much 
like his hooks, pious, elegant, chaste in conversation, 
very affable, and by no means so English as many of 
his portraits would represent him. Deeply to my re- 
gret, he was prevented, by indisposition, from being 
my fellow-traveler to the Highlands. 

Taking a steamer at Park, we sailed down by Green- 
ock to the Firth of Clyde, and thence by the Kyles of 
Bute to Loch Fine, and thence by the Crinan Canal 
through a great many islands up to Oban. The day 
was calm and warm, and the sail was magnificent, 
with the Highlands and islands constantly before us, 
and the scenery changing at every turn. We had on 
board a large company of hounds and huntsmen, and 
quite a sprinkling of nobility, on their way to the shoot- 
ing and hunting grounds in the Highlands. The dogs 
were the only passengers to whom the nobility paid 
much attention. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 267 

Oban. Royalty in exile. Round Mull. 

Oban is most pleasantly situated at the head of a 
small bay. Upon a cliff near the town stands the ivy- 
clad ruins of Dunolly Castle, the ancient fortress of the 
MacDougals of Lorn, once a most powerful clan. From 
the heights above the town are fine views of the sea, 
of the Isle of Mull, and of many smaller islands, each 
of which have their spirit-stirring history. It was on 
these heights I saw, save in the case of soldiers, the 
only Highland dress I saw in Scotland. And it was 
worn by a man upward of sixty years of age, of proud 
bearing, and probably one of the descendants of the 
" Lords of the Isles." In this Highland village we 
found the ex-Q,ueen of France, the widow of Louis 
Philippe, with some of her children, her suite, and her 
priests. what a change from Paris to Oban, and 
from the Tuileries and Versailles to the Caledonia 
Hotel ! Royalty in exile ! 

We took the steamer early in the morning for Staffa 
and lona, those celebrated islands on the western shores 
of Scotland. The day was bright and calm, and with- 
out a ripple on the ocean. On that little island Alex- 
ander II. died in 1247, and Haco of Norway met his 
confederate chieftains. That little island was anciently 
the residence of the bishops of Argyle. There, on the 
shores of Mull, is the " Lady Rock," where Maclean 
exposed his wife to be swept away by the tide; but 
she was rescued by some of her father's followers. Ig- 
norant of her rescue, Maclean had for her a mock fu- 
neral ; and was soon afterward put to death by the 
friends of his injured wife. And there " is woody Mor- 
ven," famed in the rhapsodies of Ossian. And as we 
rounded the last promontory of Mull, the islands of 



268 



MEN AND THINGS 



Staffa. Cave of Fingal. Columns. 

which we were in search were seen quietly reposing 
like sea-birds on the bosom of the Atlantic. 

Staffa rises from the ocean straight as a wall, and is 
of very irregular shape. It is about half a mile square 
on the top, which is reached with difficulty by means 
of a ladder. The great attraction of this island is its 
peculiar basaltic formation, and the " Cave of Fingal." 
This cave is one of the world's wonders. It is about 
seventy feet high, thirty-six wide, and recedes inward 
about two hundred and fifty feet. The entire front 
and sides are composed of countless basaltic columns, 
beautifully jointed, and of symmetrical though varied 
forms. The roof is composed of a rich grouping of 
overhanging pillars, some of them of snowy whiteness 
from their calcareous incrustations. The ocean ebbs 
and flows in this cave, and at full tide boats can go 
back and forth through its entire length. The columns 
on the island are sometimes perpendicular, sometimes 
oblique, and sometimes nearly horizontal. They are 
generally pentagonal and hexagonal ; sometimes they 
have seven or nine sides ; but they are rarely trian- 
gular or rhomboidal. Nor are their angles so sharp, nor 
are the blocks so exquisitely united, as those of the 
Griant's Causeway, in Ireland. Yet so closely are they 
often jointed as not to admit between them the blade 
of a knife. 

But neither pencil nor pen can adequately describe 
this wonder of nature to those who have never seen it. 
" If this cave were destitute of the order, the symme- 
try, the richness arising from the multiplicity of parts, 
combined with the greatness of dimensions and sim- 
plicity of style which it possesses ; still, the prolonged 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 269 

Attractions. Iona. Monument to Leigh Richmond. 

length, the irregular galleries, the twilight gloom, the 

echoes of the surge as it rises and falls, the transparent 

green of the water, and the fairy solitude of the whole 

scene, can not fail permanently to impress any mind 

gifted with any sense of beauty in nature or art." And 

although without inhabitant, without hamlet or hut 

under which to take shelter from rain or storm, and 

exposed to every wind that sweeps the sea, it is yet 

visited yearly by thousands, solely attracted by the 

wonderful formation and caves of Staffa, where 

" Nature itself, it seem'd, would raise 
A Minster to her Maker's praise." 

After spending some hours amid these wonders, we 
embarked, and proceeded to Iona, but a few miles dis- 
tant. Here we went ashore in boats, and were met 
by a crowd of children, wishing to sell us pebbles and 
relics of the island. Unlike Staffa, it lies low, possess- 
es a surface of about ten square miles, and has about 
400 inhabitants. There is an Established and Free 
Church, which would seem to indicate a waste of men 
and money. But we were told that at the disruption, 
the minister, who yet is on the island, and almost all 
the people, went out with the Free Church, which ren- 
dered the erection of a new church necessary. We 
here found a circulating library of religious books, kept 
in a neat room of one of the tenants, who was its libra- 
rian, and which was established by Leigh Richmond, 
on his visit to Iona. What a useful monument to com- 
memorate the visit of that excellent Christian minister. 

The great attraction of this island is in its history 
and ruins. When corruption had deeply infected the 
Church, and wars and rumors of wars filled all the na- 



270 MEN AND THINGS 



Their history. Ruins. 



tions of Europe, a class of religious people fled to this 
lonely island for the cultivation of religion and letters. 
These mostly came from Ireland, led by a Christian 
minister named Columha, and subsequently received 
the name of Culdees. For ages together they main- 
tained their simple habits and worship, uncorrupted by 
the errors, and unseduced by the arts and wiles of Pop- 
ery. This island long continued the great luminary 
of Scotland and Ireland, and sent out from its narrow 
domain the men that kept the lamps of religion and 
learning trimmed and burning in the surrounding isl- 
ands for many centuries. The Culdees were finally 
compelled to yield to the all-corrupting power of Rome. 
At one time they were attacked by the piratical Danes ; 
at another by the Norwegians ; and they suffered ter- 
ribly in the conflicts between the Picts and Scots. In 
877 they fled to Ireland. Their abbot was slain, and 
their monastery pillaged in 985. In 1059 their mon- 
astery was consumed. They lingered for nearly a cen- 
tury afterward amid the ruins of their sacred island, 
when they were scattered over Scotland, and kept the 
lights of truth burning until the Reformation, which 
they all hailed as the work of Grod. 

And there before you stand the ruins of their famous 
old monastery, and of the chapel where these Culdees 
preached and prayed. The feelings which the first 
view of them excites is peculiar, after sailing for hours 
among the barren islands between them and Oban. 
They rise out of the deep, giving to the desolate region 
an air of civilization, and stand up a monument to the 
memory of the pious and holy men whose works yet 
praise them, though the names of most of them have 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 271 



Holy island. The baptistry. Singular question. 

passed away from the records of men. This was es- 
teemed in Denmark and Norway, as well as in Ireland 
and Scotland, " an holy island ;" and hence you are 
shown lines of graves of Danish and Scottish kings. 
On their death they were taken to the "holy isle" for 
sepulture. In wandering around the ruins, we came 
to what was obviously the well of the monastery, now 
almost filled up with rubbish. " "What was this ?" said 
a lady of the company. " No doubt the old well of 
the Culdees," was the reply. "As the Culdees were 
Baptists, was it not probably their baptistry ?" said an 
intelligent Baptist clergyman from London, who was 
one of the company. It was the ruling passion strong 
in Iona. Of the three hundred and sixty-five stone 
crosses which studded this little isle, but one now re- 
mains, which is a rudely-carved pillar twelve or fifteen 
feet high, and is called the MacLean Cross, after the 
clan which was once chief among these islands. And 
as our steamer turned her prow toward Oban, I threw 
all the emotions of my heart into the sweet words, 

" Homeward we turn. Isle of Columba's cell, 
Where Christian piety's soul-cheering spark 
(Kindled from heaven between the light and dark 
Of time) shone like the morning star — farewell." 

" You are from America, they tell me," said the 
captain, as I stood on the wheel-box looking out upon 
Mull, and straining my eyes to catch a glimpse of 
Skye. After some conversation as to localities, he 
again asked, " Did you ever hear of a Bishop Hughes 
in New York .?" After replying in the affirmative, he 
said, " I was some months ago in Sligo, where I bought 
a little book called ' Letters to Bishop Hughes, by 



272 MEN AND THINGS 

Who is Kirwan 1 Niche in the Dunciad 

Kirwan.' Now I want to know if you have ever seen 
it or read it ?" On replying in the affirmative, he 
said, " I have read that hook over and over ; and I 
have read it to my wife : now I want to ask if you 
know who Kirwan was ?" "Without revealing myself 
to the honest Scot, for which I have-since "been sorry, 
I got round the question as well as I could. ""Well," 
said he, as he left me, " I should really like to know 
how Bishop Hughes could get along with Kirwan." 
Did I know where to find him, or how to direct it, I 
would certainly send him a copy of that wonderful 
production — " Kirwan Unmasked," which has done so 
much to exalt the literary fame of its author. It 
affords full proof of his rare qualifications for a high 
niche in the Dunciad. 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 273 

Ballahulish. Glencoe. Scenery. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

To Ballahulish. — Glencoe : its Wildness. — Ossian's Birth-place. — 
Massacre . — Scotch Bittock. — A Moor. — Barren Possessions. — Duke 
of Breadalbane. — Loch Lomond. — Sketches from Nature. — Invers- 
naid. — A Cabin. — Loch Katrine. — Trosachs. — Our Coachman. — ■ 
Sabbath in Callander. — Identity of the Gaelic and Irish Languages. 
— Comparison. — To Liverpool. 

We took an early start from Oban for Loch Lomond. 
We sailed up Lochs Linnhe, and Appan, and Levin, 
which are only salt-water hays, sprinkled all over with 
Darren islands, and were landed at a most miserable 
village called Ballahulish, where is a very extensive 
slate quarry. The houses, the women, and the chil- 
dren forcibly recalled some of the villages that we had 
seen in Connaught. Here we took a stage, and rode 
at a fearful rate through the celebrated pass of Grlen- 
coe, to see which was our object in taking this route 
This pass or gorge is celebrated for its wildness, and 
for a fearful massacre perpetrated there in 1691, that 
leaves a stain upon the character of King William 
which no effort has been able to remove. The lower 
portion of it is cultivated ; but every sign of cultivation 
disappears as you advance. Soon you are in a defile, 
wild to savageness, where you can only see the heavens 
above you, and ragged rocks on either hand, lifting up 
their peaks to the clouds. Toward the head of the glen 
the scenery becomes almost Alpine in rough sublimity ; 
you are reminded of the Alps by the dark shadows of 
M 2 



274 MEN AND THINGS 

Ossian's birth-place. Massacre. 

the mountains, and by the wreaths of snow to be seen 
in all their clefts. Occasionally along the road you 
see in the piles of stones and sand, and the deep gul- 
leys that interrupt your travel, the fearful power of 
the mountain torrent ; and for some months of the 
year the scream of the eagle and the roar of these 
torrents are the only ' sounds heard in this waste- 
howling wilderness. The wild stream of Cona rushes 
through this glen, on the banks of which it is said 
Ossian was born. Fitting birth-place for a man of 
such wild fancy ! 

The Macdonalds of this region were men of desper- 
ate character, little less than bandits. They were a 
powerful clan, both as to number and courage. They 
were, besides, Jacobites of the worst character, and 
refused to the last submission to "William. At last, 
however, they took the oath of allegiance, but whether 
within the prescribed time, or two or three days after, 
is not so clear. Supposing all was safe, Macdonald 
dismissed all fear. Two companies of soldiers marched 
up the glen, quartered among the clan as friends, and, 
after enjoying their hospitality for nearly two weeks, 
rose at night, and murdered thirty-eight of them in 
their beds. It is supposed the criminal party to this 
tragedy was Breadalbane, between whom and the 
Macdonalds a long feud existed. " Do you see that 
green strip of land on the other side of the stream ?" 
said our furious driver. " That is the place where 
Campbell of GHenlyon murdered the Macdonalds." 
And we drove on. " There is about a quarter of a 
mile and a bittock of road here which is very bad ; 
will you walk it, gentlemen ?" said the knight of the 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 275 

Scotch bittock. A moor. Loch Lomond 

whip. "We all descended ; and unless the bittock was 
six or eight times as long as the quarter, I am mis- 
taken. " How long, driver, did you say it was up 
that hill?" I inquired, as I mounted to my seat on the 
top. He pretended not to hear ; but he laughed out- 
right when I told him, sweating and puffing, that the 
next time I walked up that hill, I thought I would 
ride. 

Emerging from this glen, we passed over a moor thir- 
ty or forty miles wide, where there was not a habitation 
visible for many miles. Nothing met the eye but the 
heath and the mountain, with here and there a stag or 
a flock of sheep, whose only visible means of support 
were the stones and the heather. This is the great 
hunting-ground of the Duke of Breadalbane, whose do- 
mains are said to be about sixty miles long. But if all 
his possessions are like those over which we were pass- 
ing, he must be poor indeed, for, surely, the more the 
worse of such lands. In the midst of this wilderness 
we passed his " shooting-box," said to contain fifty 
rooms. "What, then, must his palace be! We never 
heard him named but with eulogy, both as to his lib- 
erality and humble piety. 

We reached Loch Lomond early in the afternoon, 
and as the boat went down the lake and returned, I re- 
solved to go with her and return, that I might have a 
full view of the world-famed beauties of these waters. 

At its northern extremity, where we embarked, the 
lake is in form like a canal, not much wider or deeper. 
Soon the scenery becomes very bold, and the waters ex- 
pand. Soon there is the appearance of a lake, when 
the waters spread out into a width of five or six miles. 



276 MEN AND THINGS 

Up and down. Its islands. Sunset of Ben Lomond. 

You pass under the shadow of " the lofty Ben Lo- 
mond," and by many pretty islands, and within sight of 
many sweet summer residences of some of the aristoc- 
racy and wealthy merchants of Glasgow ; and in ahout 
two hours you reach the wharf at its southern point. 
Thence we retraced our course to Inverarnan, where 
we spent the night ; thus going down and up the 
lake. 

Lomond is the pride of Scottish lakes. It has about 
thirty islands of very various sizes. On some of these 
are the ruins of old fortifications ; and every island, 
and projecting rock, and little vale has its history. Un- 
der that shelving rock is Rob Roy's cave. That mill 
stands on the patrimony of Rob ; of which, when un- 
justly deprived, he turned freebooter. That small 
opening is the entrance to Glen Fruin, where clan Mac- 
gregor almost annihilated the Colquhouns, and then 
murdered about eighty youth who came to see the 
fight. On that hill was one of the hunting-seats of 
Fingal. Thus every island, vale, rock, and pass has its 
bloody history. The sun was setting over Ben Lo- 
mond as we were returning — the air was still ; the lake 
from its glassy bosom reflected every shadow that fell 
upon it. It was the gloaming of a magnificent even- 
ing in August, which magnified every object and clothed 
all nature with an enchanting mellowness. How I 
wished for the genius of an Angelo, to place on canvas 
some of the enchanting pictures around me. Under 
the inspiration of the hour, I absolutely drew out my 
pencil and commenced sketching from nature. But so 
rude were my sketches, and so unlike nature, that, ere 
I left the boat, I gave them to the waters, 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 277 

A cabin. Loch Katrine. Trosachs. 

" Famous for three things : 
Waves without winds, 
Fish without fins, 
And an island that swims." 

Down the lake again to Inversnaid, where we landed 
for Loch Katrine, five miles distant, and over a very 
miserable road. I walked up the hill, and, while wait- 
ing for a drosky, entered a Highland cabin for inspec- 
tion. The children could not speak English, but with 
the mother I held quite a conversation. Two not very 
clean rooms made up the abode. " Grranny," as the 
young mother called her, lay in the second room upon 
a bed of straw, one of the most lean and faded old per- 
sons I ever saw. I made an effort to speak to her, but 
she knew only the Gaelic. But there was a Bible with 
the Psalms on a rude shelf, and the woman was well 
instructed in religious things. Her church was on the 
other side of the lake, to which she went every Sunday. 

One hour brought us to Loch Katrine, and soon we 
were on board the smallest edition of a steamer I ever 
saw, and on the bosom of one of the smallest lakes im- 
aginable. First you are greatly disappointed ; but as 
you proceed, winding about jutting rocks, the scenery 
grows in beauty, and when you reach the " Trosachs" 
you are ever more exclaiming how beautiful ! The 
Trosachs is a name given to a space running about 
three miles, partly on both sides of the lake, consisting 
of hills and rocks, covered thick with moss and under- 
wood, piled indiscriminately together, and which form 
a very wild and dark scene. The plot of the " Lady 
of the Lake" is laid here ; and the captain of the tiny 
steamer shows you the island where Ellen shot her light 



278 MEN AND THINGS 

Lady of the Lake. Our driver. His craft. 

skiff to the shore — where the " noble gray" died in the 
chase — and where Roderio Dhu landed. It was cer- 
tainly pleasing to read the beautiful poem as I did, 
amid the scenes which it describes ; but I could not 
resist the inference that this loch would be far less in- 
teresting if that poem had never been written. The 
prose and poetry of the lake differ very considerably. 

After wandering some hours amid the Trosachs, we 
took stage to Callander. The road was along small 
lakes, and glens, and narrow passes, to each and all of 
which the genius of Scott gave a most romantic history. 
I was very fortunate in getting a seat by the side of 
our driver, a fine, burly, intelligent Scotchman, with a 
red coat and other insignia of office. He seemed to 
have committed the Lady of the Lake to memory, and 
as we passed along he would locate the various inci- 
dents narrated in it. Here was the gathering-ground 
of Clan-Alpin — up that mountain the fiery-cross flew. 
Yonder is the church where the wedding took place — 
there is the hillside which was covered with men at 
the sound of Roderic's bugle-horn — there is the glen 
where was the deadly fight. 

" They tug, they strain ! down, down they go ; 
The Gael above — Fitz-James below." 

And he would spout the passages descriptive of the 
scenes in right good style, and greatly to our edification 
and amusement ; and when not entirely familiar with 
passages, he would draw the book from his pocket, hold- 
ing it in one hand, and guiding his coach and four 
with the other. But when I learned at Callander that 
this was a part of his craft to get passengers, my re- 
spect for his poetic taste and voluntary rehearsals was 



AS^SEEN IN EUROPE. 279 

Sabbath in Callander. The worship. The people. 

greatly diminished. What a pity that a due estimate 
of the motives so often diminish our regard for the 
actions of men ! What an annoyance, to he always 
canvassing motives ! 

I spent the Sabbath in Callander, and mostly with 
the family of Dr. Cunningham, who was here spending 
his vacation. The day was a charming one, even for 
Scotland. Before the hour of service I walked up and 
down the street, and it was most interesting to see the 
people streaming into the town in every direction, each 
with his Bible under his arm. The persons in car- 
riages mostly went to the Established Church, but the 
vast multitude flocked to the Free. When I entered 
it, the house was crowded in all its parts. Soon a min- 
ister entered the pulpit, in gown and bands, and com- 
menced the service ; after which, not an individual en- 
tered the house. All sang ; and the singing was con- 
ducted from a desk beneath the pulpit. The whole 
church was vocal with praise. When the text was 
announced, all turned to it in their own Bibles. When, 
in the course of the sermon, a reference was made to 
Scripture, the people turned to it. Every body seemed 
attentive, although the sermon was long, and to me dry, 
though thoroughly evangelical. At the close of the 
service there was a mutual and kindly recognition of 
the worshipers, who retired from the town in troops, as 
they came, each with a Bible under their arm ; the 
most decent, orderly, intelligent, devout class of peas- 
antry that I ever saw, or perhaps that the world knows. 

I went to the Established Church in the afternoon, 
which was in every respect a poor affair. A few per- 
sons sat in the gallery, and fewer yet on the first floor. 



280 MEN AND THINGS 



Established Church. Gaelic service. The people. 

I sat on a dirty seat, and my feet were on the ground, 
and a little urchin was playing, through the whole serv- 
ice, among the seats with the stones and gravel. The 
whole service was in Graelic, the first I ever heard, and 
it struck me as unique. The hearers were few, and 
generally old. The old women wore white high caps 
without honnets, and looked exceedingly primitive. 
The precentor lined the psalm, and sung it ; but where 
he stopped reading and commenced singing, or the con- 
trary, it was difficult to tell, save by the noises of the 
people around. Worse singing none could desire, and 
but few could endure. Yet it seemed to the taste of 
the people, who will suffer no changes in music ren- 
dered venerable by being chanted in these fastnesses 
for three centuries. The sermon was long to me, who 
could not understand a word of it ; but the people hung 
upon the preacher's lips, who now and then rose up to 
the region of earnestness. The whole scene — men, 
women, minister, singing, and all — recalled the earlier 
worship of the Covenanters ; and the life-like represent- 
ations, in pictures, of that worship can not be fully un- 
derstood by those who have never seen a Graelic con- 
gregation worshiping in the Highlands. The people 
before me were the unchanged descendants of their 
sires. Any of them might be taken for the picture of 
a Covenanter. The church was very thinly attended, 
owing partly to the service being in Graelic, but main- 
ly to the fact that almost all the Highlands have gone 
with the Free Church. 

It is now increasingly evident that the Graelic and 
the Irish are the same language. I met with a lady 
from the Highlands in the Ballinglen school, in Ireland, 
who, from her knowledge of the Graelic, read and spoke 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 281 

Gaelic and Irish identical. Churches. Preaching. 

the Irish fluently. And the Rev. Mr. Brannagan, of 
the Irish mission, on his first hearing a G-aelic sermon, 
understood it perfectly ; and, on a visit to Callander, 
he found no difficulty in conversing with persons in 
Gaelic who did not understand English. This may 
lead to most important results in the efforts now mak- 
ing to evangelize Ireland. The identity of language 
opens a wide field for missionaries from the Highlands. 

In Scotland the churches are far plainer than with 
us. Those of Drs. Candlish, Gordon, and Guthrie, of 
Edinburgh, the most fashionable there, are not to be 
compared with our best class of churches. The same 
is true of the churches in England and Ireland. They 
seem to go upon the principle, which has too much ev- 
idence to substantiate it, that gay churches, gay peo- 
ple, and lax doctrine and discipline, go together. The 
preaching is simple and scriptural, and far more earn- 
est than with us, but not so well arranged or digest- 
ed. But their congregations far surpass ours in earnest 
worship. The heartlessness and frivolity often seen in 
American churches I never witnessed in any Protestant 
congregations abroad. I have not a doubt but that the 
Presbyterianism of Scotland is the purest, the truest, 
the most spiritual type of Christianity known among 
men. 

My time for homeward voyage was drawing nigh, 
and delay was no longer possible ; and I was away 
from Callander, through Stirling to Edinburgh ; and 
from the Athens of the North, through Lanark, Locker- 
bie, to Gretna ; and through Carlisle and Preston to 
Liverpool, where I rested for a few days, enjoying the 
hospitality of dear Christian friends while finishing my 
preparations for home. 



282 MEN AND THING8 

Hide to Bangor. Menai Straits. 



CHAPTER XL IV. 

To Wales. — Menai Straits. — Tubular Bridge. — Length. — View from 
beneath : from the Top. — Last View. — Friends at Liverpool. — Sail- 
ing. — Voyage. — Passengers. — Last Evening. — Our Farewell. 

By an old and kind friend, now making his mark in 
the commercial circles of Liverpool, a visit was pro- 
jected for me to Wales, and to the Britannia Bridge, 
famous in all the earth as a work of art. The Rev. 
Mr, Roberts, a Dissenting clergyman, was my compan- 
ion. We passed through old Chester, visiting its Ca- 
thedral, its Roman wall, Holywell, St. Asaph's, Conway 
to Bangor, near to which are the famous suspension 
and tubular bridges. During this ride on the Chester 
and Holyhead railway, the mountains of Wales, prop- 
ping the skies, were on one side of us, and the sea, 
white with canvas, on the other. We stopped at the 
bridge, and after the effect of our astonishment so far 
subsided as to permit us to go on, we went under it, 
and through it, and over it. 

The Menai Straits is an arm of the sea, separating 
the Isle of Anglesea from the main land, through which 
the waters of the Irish Sea and of St. George's Chan- 
nel rush with great force. In this channel, and be- 
tween very high banks, the tide rises nearly thirty 
feet, and the waters are eternally vibrating in a cur- 
rent, whether in or out, of from seven to ten miles an 
hour. The question to be solved was, how the railway 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 283 

Question solved. The bridge. View from the top. 

connecting Dublin by Holyhead with London, could 
be carried over these straits ? And the question was 
solved by the erection of this wonderful bridge, far 
more wonderful than the Pyramids of Egypt. I will 
attempt a brief description of it. 

On either side of the straits are built vast abutments, 
and rising about two hundred feet from amid the wa- 
ters are three vast tapering towers ; and upon these 
abutments and towers the vast iron tubes are laid, 
through which heavily-laden railway trains are whist- 
ling almost every hour of the day. The length of this 
tube is but a little less than two thousand feet ; while 
its two main spans, reaching over the deepest waters, 
are each four hundred and sixty feet. Through this 
tube there is a double track, and so firmly is it con- 
structed that it scarcely vibrates when a heavily-laden 
train is flying through it. 

You are amazed as you look up from the waters 
upon the stupendous structure hanging in the air above 
you, and when you see long trains of cars flying in at 
the one side and flying out at the other ! And you 
are amazed, when you pass through it, at the genius 
which contrived it, and at the skill which executed it. 
But your amazement rises into rhapsody as you ascend 
to the top of the tube and walk over its extreme length. 
Beneath you the cars are flying laden with passengers, 
and in the waters yet farther beneath you ships are 
sailing with all their canvas flying. I was in the air 
above while several vessels of three or four hundred 
tons burden passed beneath. On one side of you the 
famous Suspension Bridge hangs in the air, over which 
carriages and wagons are passing, which in the dis- 



284 MEN AND THINGS 

Magnificent. Mrs. Duncan. Departure 

tance seem to have nothing to sustain them. On an- 
other side is seen reposing in beauty the marble castle 
of the Marquis of Anglesea, on a green lawn sloping 
to the water, and shaded with trees of unknown age. 
East and west are seen the glittering waters of the 
Irish Sea and St. G-eorge's Channel ; while the southern 
horizon is bounded by the hills of Caernarvon, among 
which the patriarch Snowdon lifts his bold and rugged 
head to the clouds. 

It was enough. We descended. And as we walked 
toward Bangor, we felt in kind as we did when taking 
our last view of St. Peter's and of the glorious Alps. 

It was truly refreshing to meet in Liverpool Mrs. 
Mary Lundy Duncan, whom I left in America, whose 
literary labors are so excellent and useful, and whose 
visit to our country will not be soon forgotten by those 
who had the privilege and pleasure of making her ac- 
quaintance. Having seen her in my own house, she 
gave me a home feeling whenever I met her, which 
was almost daily during my sojourn. 

The day of our departure was come. At noon we 
left Prince's wharf for the noble steamer Atlantic, which 
lay in the river. Mrs. Duncan and other dear friends 
accompanied us to the ship. Soon Captain "West took 
his stand on the wheel-house, and ordered all, save pas- 
sengers, ashore. It was a tender hour. Some were 
parting to meet no more this side of the grave ; and 
they so felt. Soon our wheels were in motion. We 
waved handkerchiefs to the dear friends we were leav- 
ing as long as we could distinguish them. As Liver- 
pool and New Brighton died away behind us, we turn- 
ed our eyes to the scenes that were before us. Soon 



AS SEEN IN EUROPE. 285 

Voyage. Last service on board. 

we passed the Skerries and Holyhead. Soon the rock- 
hound shore of Erin rose to view ; and soon, leaving 
Cape Clear behind us, we were out on the broad bosom 
of the sea. Our passengers were numerous, and of ev- 
ery variety. There were ministers, physicians, editors, 
lawyers, merchants, farmers, mechanics, and play-act- 
ors. Some were well, and some were very ill bred 
persons. Nor did it take either long to show their na- 
ture. Some were returning from the "World's Fair," 
which had attractions for all kinds of people, and our 
captain had never a more miscellaneous company. 
With the usual attendants on a voyage, such as head 
winds, high and smooth seas, sea-sickness, the usual 
alternations between eating, drowsing, and sleeping, 
we pursued our course, our wheels never ceasing for a 
moment to revolve until we entered the Bay of New 
York. 

Our last evening on board was the evening of the 
Sabbath. We had taken a pilot, and our noble cap- 
tain resigned his noble ship to his care. We meet in 
the cabin for evening service. The closing address was 
from the words " Finally, brethren, farewell." And as 
we commended each other in prayer to G-od, and im- 
plored the protection of Heaven upon our ship and her 
commander through all their future voyages, the deep- 
est solemnity pervaded the entire company. And as 
we sung a parting hymn, every bosom swelled with 
emotion, and many eyes were overflowing with tears. 
We retired ; and when we awoke in the morning, the 
Atlantic lay quietly at her pier. 

THE END. 



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